What Makes For A Good Resume?
The number one rule to writing a great acting resume is to keep it simple and straightforward. Many times, actors like to stock their resumes with lots of unorganized or unnecessary content. This is a big mistake. That's because, the people who look at resumes-casting personnel, directors, producers, talent agents-have to look at many different résumés at one time. They don't have lots of time to evaluate a convoluted, messy, unorganized resume. Therefore, a great resume should be very easy to read and easy to understand. Casting directors should be able to have a clear understanding of the actor's experience within 5-seconds of looking at it. A good resume answers, in a concise, upfront way, the amount of training and experience a person has had. The resume also explains the skills and abilities the actor possesses.
What Should Go On My Resume?
Experience
The most important aspect of the resume is experience. Actors should list any plays, commercials, films or television programs they have performed in. Experienced actors should limit the experience portion of their resume to the experiences that are most notable, career-defining and eye-catching. Meanwhile, inexperienced actors who may have very little experience, should list all the relevant experience they have, including church skits and high-school performances.
Training
Actors can list any relevant performing arts training in their 'training' section. For instance, if an actor has taken acting classes at a local, community theater, the actor can choose to make note of that training in this section.
Special Skills
Actors should list any special skills they possess. For example, if you know how to speak Spanish, you should put that on your acting resume in a 'special skill' section. That way, if there is a casting director seeking an actor who is fluent in Spanish, they will be more likely to choose you.
What Should NOT Go On My Resume?
Irrelevant Experiences
In order to keep their resumes concise, actors should leave irrelevant experiences off of their resumes. This would include non-acting or non-performance-related experiences such as which courses the actor took in college; unless of course the actor took theater or acting courses in college.
Lies
To pad their resumes, some unscrupulous actors attempt to add experiences they don't actually have, such as claiming to have been in a movie they were never in. Lying on a resume is a big no-no. Actors who get caught have their careers damaged. And, the actors who don't get caught cheat themselves out of actually gaining the true experience needed to become a better performer.
