Acting Resume Templates and Examples for 2024

Acting Resume Template Example

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Your acting resume should leave casting directors eager to see you come in for an audition. It must convey your versatility, theatrical talent, and commitment to honing your craft. We’ll provide tips and strategies to help you create a resume that shines a spotlight on the show-stopping moments of your acting career.

How To Write an Acting Resume

Use a premade template for your resume to make a professional first impression. Your acting resume should include these sections:

Contact information

Display your contact information clearly at the top of your resume, making it effortless for the hiring team to contact you for a callback. List your full name, phone number, email address, location, and online profiles or portfolios.

Profile

Give the casting team a sneak preview of your resume with a brief summary of your acting experience and skills. Consider what directors are looking for and how you match the requirements of the role. Then, work this information into your profile, writing two to three sentences about your unique qualifications.

Key skills

The skills section of your resume should highlight exactly what directors are looking for. Study your casting call before creating your resume to identify any required skills for the role. Then, match them up with your own abilities and include them in your key skills section. This will likely be a mix of hard and soft skills like those listed below.

Common hard and soft skills for acting

Professional experience

This section will look slightly different than what comes standard in a basic resume template. Rather than provide a classic job description with bullet points of duties and accomplishments, you’ll create a three-column list outlining notable performances in chronological order. First, provide the production name, then the name of the part you played, and finally, the company name and year(s) performed.

If you’ve had roles in a combination of film, television, and theater productions, don’t combine them into one list. Instead, create separate sections for each category. This makes it easy for hiring managers to see how much experience you’ve had in different mediums.

Resume writer’s tip: Tailor your resume for each application

Every role you play or audition for is unique, and keep this in mind as you craft your resume. Before sending out your resume, tailor it to meet the specific needs of that role. This will help you stand out from other applicants vying for the expected 9,000 yearly acting job opportunities.

Highlight projects that showcase the skills or genres relevant to the audition and incorporate keywords from the casting call into your document. This proves you’re serious about the role and took the time to study what the casting team is looking for.

Resume writer’s tip: Highlight your leadership capabilities

In show business, leadership extends beyond traditional managerial roles – it involves qualities like being a team player, inspiring castmates, and demonstrating professionalism. Leadership also looks like supporting diverse casting and collaborating with inclusive creative teams. If you can demonstrate these skills in your resume, directors won’t see you as just another one of the 54,000 performers but a valuable asset to their production.

Resume writer’s tip: How to choose the best resume format

The reverse chronological format is the best choice for an acting resume. Your past performances take the spotlight and prove this isn’t your first casting call. Work history is the focal point of this format, while your skills and education play a supporting role.

If you have less experience or you’ve only been cast as an extra, a combination resume is a good alternative. Instead of giving your past roles center stage, your skills and training come first.

What if you don’t have experience?

Casting directors are used to seeing fresh talent without much on their resume, so start by working with what you have. If you majored in drama or participated in acting workshops, drama clubs, and improve groups, highlight this in your education section.

Even if you’ve been part of small plays or dance recitals as a kid, you can include those here – any productions on stage or in front of a camera count. Also, focus on any relevant skills you have, such as accents, languages, singing, or dancing.

Education and memberships

Acting gigs may not require any formal education or special credentials the way other professions do. However, it’s still important to list your academic background, especially if you have performance training. Acting classes, workshops, drama school, and theater programs are all educational experiences you can include here.

If you happen to have any memberships in unions or acting associations, mention it on your resume. This shows you’re actively involved in the community and serious about your work. Create a simple bulleted list with organization names and the years you joined.

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Andrew Stoner

Executive Resume Writer and Career Coach

A resume should be a forward-looking value proposition that showcases your most relevant accomplishments for a target role — not a rear view summary of your previous roles and responsibilities.