Starting an Acting Career: Essential Steps for Success

Aspiring actors should prioritize acting classes and gain experience through background work to build a successful career.

### Starting an Acting Career: Essential Steps and Insights
* 🎬 To embark on a successful acting career, securing an agent is **crucial**, but it should come after gaining **initial experience** and showcasing your **dedication to the craft**.
* 📚 Taking acting classes is the first step to **improve your skills and meet industry professionals**, which is essential for **building a network and gaining exposure**.
* 💼 Maintaining a steady income through side jobs is vital, especially since acting income can be **unpredictable in the early stages**; many actors leave the field due to **financial strain**.
* 📹 Creating a demo reel is important, and even beginners can make one by **recording scenes with partners** to demonstrate their **acting abilities**.
* 🎭 Pursuing background work offers valuable on-set experience, allowing aspiring actors to **learn the ropes without the pressure of a speaking role**.
* 🖼 While headshots are important, new actors should avoid rushing into expensive sessions; starting with a **high-quality cell phone photo** is a practical alternative.
* 🔍 Researching potential talent agencies and acting schools is critical to avoid scams, as many entities **prey on aspiring actors' dreams**.
* 📈 Lastly, learning how to audition effectively is essential, as it requires a **different skill set** compared to acting in full productions; this skill can be honed through **dedicated practice and audition classes**.

I want to tell you what I would do if I were starting an acting career today from absolute zero. This is based on my own personal experience from being a working actor for the past 15 years and knowing what I know now. If I were to start today, these are the steps that I would take. What's up, my fellow actors? Welcome to the Acting Career Center, and Happy New Year! My name is Kurt U. Thank you so much for spending some time here with me today. If this is your first time here, make sure to subscribe to this channel to get more videos on acting, auditioning, and career advice. And if you haven't already downloaded my free 10-step audition preparation guide yet, you can get it from that link right up there. I call it my audition cheat sheet. It's my own 10-step audition preparation process that has helped me book over 50 movies and television shows, and I hope it can do the same for you as well. All right, so let's dive in. These are the steps that I

would take if I were starting an acting career today from absolute zero. The first thing I would do is take acting classes. You've probably heard me talk about this on my channel tons of times, but it's absolutely essential that you start your career with acting classes. If you're really serious about your career, you're going to want to become a better actor. You're going to want to take acting classes and train and improve yourself. The only people that I hear that don't want to take acting classes are the ones who don't really care about acting. What they really care about is they're infatuated with the idea of becoming an actor, but they don't really care about the craft of acting. Now, if you really care about the craft of acting, then you're going to be really excited to take acting classes. So absolutely, acting classes is the number one step that I would take. Now, there's also more benefits to acting classes than just learning the craft of acting. It's the fact that you're going to meet people who are in the industry. You're going to

meet your acting coaches. You're going to meet other students in the class that are also trying to do the same things that you are doing, so you're going to grow your community, and you're going to grow your network. And this is a huge part of your acting career, is having a great network that's going to support you, and it's going to help you along the way. And all of that is going to start with signing up for your very first acting class. So, that's my number one step. The second thing that I would do is pursue background work, basically being an extra in movies and TV shows. So, look in your local community and find out how to become an extra when there are movies being filmed in your area. Now, if you live in a big market like New York or Los Angeles or Atlanta, there's going to be plenty of opportunities for this. If you live in a smaller market, you may have a harder time finding it, but keep a lookout because there are going to be times when big Hollywood movies want to

shoot in rural areas or in smaller towns because they don't want the look of a big city. So, for example, when I was living in Ohio, which is not really known for big movies and TV shows, every once in a while, we would get major movies coming into town to film certain scenes because they wanted the look of that state or of that city. And there would always be opportunities to be an extra on those productions. Now, you might ask, why would I want to be an extra if I want to be an actor who has a speaking part, right? Well, if you don't have any experience at all, being an extra on a TV show or a movie can be a great learning experience because you get to be on set without the added pressure of having that speaking role. You can kind of sit back and observe and see how things are done on set. The thing that I kind of equated to is that, like, let's say you want to be a pilot. Well, before you ever become a pilot, don't you think you should ride in an airplane first as a

passenger at one time before you actually take the controls of the plane. That's what it's kind of like being an extra. You get to be in the background, and you're paid to do it. It's kind of like a paid internship. You're being paid to learn and to see how things work on set, and that on-set experience, even though you are just a background actor, can be super valuable as you progress in your career. So, that's what I would do, is to pursue background work and try to find as much of that as possible to really start to educate myself as far as what acting on set is like. The next thing I would do is look for flexible job opportunities that allow me to pursue my acting career more freely. The reason I need to do this is because acting income is very unpredictable and unreliable, especially in the early stages of your career. You're most likely going to be spending a lot more money into your career than you're going to be getting out of it again, especially in the early

stages, so it's really important to have a steadier income with a side hustle of some sort or maybe multiple side hustles of some sort so that you can freely pursue your acting career without the desperation of needing to book a job for the money. This is so important because I know so many actors who have ended up quitting pursuing their acting career not because they didn't love it anymore, not because they didn't desire becoming an actor anymore, but because it became too hard financially, because they didn't expect how much money they were going to be putting into the career and how little they were going to be getting out, especially in the beginning. So I think it's a really smart way to pursue this career to look for avenues outside of acting and outside of maybe the film industry in general of making money so that you can have a steady income to support this pursuit. And this is really a mindset that can really carry forward throughout your entire career. I've been a working actor for 15

years now. Over the past few years, I've been lucky enough to be making enough money to be able to support myself with my acting income alone. But because I've had the mindset of always having some sort of side income to supplement my acting income, I've never had to worry about money, even when I had a lot of lows in my acting career. Because that's going to happen. You're always going to have highs and lows in your acting career. It's very unpredictable, especially the income side of it. So, starting from the beginning, if you can start pursuing other sources of income that can supplement your acting income, it'll be a great help for your career going forward. So, that is the third thing that I would do if I were starting my acting career today. The next thing I would do if I were starting an acting career today is learn how to audition. I already mentioned earlier that the first step I would take is to take acting classes. Now, there are a wide variety of acting classes that one could take in order to improve themselves as

an actor. One of them would be an audition class, and I think earlier rather than later, every actor should start to learn how to audition well because it's a very different skill set than simply learning how to act. In your acting classes, you'll learn how to break down a scene and how to work with a scene partner and how to really bring a character to life and all of those things. Now with an audition, you need to take all of those skills and apply it to a very, very specific situation. An audition situation is very limited. You don't necessarily have the environment and the props and the scene partners and all of these things. You're not given a full story; you're just given a very small section of the story. Now, how can you use your script analysis, where you've previously broken down a full play? Now you're doing it for just a very small scene. It can be very challenging when you're put into that situation, and especially if you maybe have a live audition or a virtual audition where there's a casting

director and a director, and maybe some other people, all watching you, being able to deal with those nerves so that you can perform when you are nervous, is a huge skill to learn as well. So, that's why I would put learning how to audition well pretty high on my list of things that I would do right away if I were starting my acting career today. The next thing I would do if I were starting my career today is to do a lot of research and to watch out for scams in this industry. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people that are preying on people's hopes and dreams in this industry and are really only in it to take your money and don't really have your best interest at heart and don't really want to help you improve. They just promise you things and make it sound very good so that you'll pay them a lot of money, but they can't really deliver on their promises. Just a simple Google search of a company name, such as a talent agency or an acting school, will probably turn up reviews that will show you if a certain

school or agency is legitimate or not, so make sure you do just a bare minimum amount of research before you start to give anybody money. Okay, now let's talk about headshots. You've probably heard people say that actors need headshots and how important they are, and I'm not here to dispute that at all. Actors' headshots are extremely important in their careers, but I will say this: if I were starting my career today, I would not rush to go pay for professional headshots. I would wait a little bit, especially after taking some classes and really understanding the industry a little bit more, before I ran to pay too much money for headshots. Some headshot sessions can cost $500, $600, $700. I know people that have paid thousands of dollars for headshots, and they can be worth it if you know what you're doing. Now, a lot of actors, when they're just starting out, don't really know what they're doing when they show up to a headshot session. They just go up and hope that the headshot photographer will take a good picture of them that

will launch their acting career, but you really have to understand that headshots are very strategic. If you don't have a strategy and you don't have a plan when you go into a paid headshot session, then you might be wasting your money. So, be very careful before spending money on headshots too early. Again, I very much encourage actors to invest in quality headshots, but not before they really understand a little bit more about the business side of acting and understanding what a headshot is used for, so they can go into a headshot session with a plan for their careers. So, what do I suggest in the meantime? Well, you can absolutely take a headshot of yourself, having someone do it with their cell phone. I'm not saying that that's going to launch your career, but that can be a good starter headshot for submitting yourself for lower-level productions. For example, when you seek auditions in the beginning, you're probably going to find student films and independent projects. A lot of them don't pay any money. If you're going to submit

yourself for these projects to get experience. I don't think you need to invest $500 on a headshot to apply for jobs that don't pay anything. Eventually, when you do submit for jobs that pay money, that's when you're going to want to invest in a higher quality headshot. But in the beginning, you can absolutely get away with using a high-quality cell phone photo and use that as your first headshot. Now, I don't think you should just wing it and take whatever photo you can. Look at what professional photos and headshots look like on talent agency websites and even on IMDb. Look up some of the actors and see what their headshots look like and try to mimic those. It's probably not going to look exactly the same, but if you try to mimic it, you'll probably be able to achieve something that will hold you over until you can spend the money on a higher quality headshot. The next thing I would do if I were starting my career today is to create a demo reel. Most people, when they think of a demo

reel. They imagine they are clips from projects that they've worked on, so a clip from a movie or a clip from a TV show that they've worked on, so that they can show the things that they've done. Now, when you're starting out, you're not going to have any of that, right? Because we don't have any experience yet. So, do we have nothing? Well, yes, we have nothing, but it doesn't mean we can't create anything for our demo reel. Think of it like this: if you were a graphic designer, just because you haven't been hired by anybody to create any graphics for them yet, doesn't mean you wouldn't already have a portfolio to show, right? You would have a portfolio of things that you've designed yourself just so you can get that first job. So, same thing if you're an actor. Just because nobody has hired you yet because you're a beginner, doesn't mean you shouldn't have a demo reel to show your acting ability. So, what you can do is to create a demo reel yourself. Everybody has a high-quality

camera these days on their phones. You can record a demo reel with your phone by simply doing a monologue or a short scene with a scene partner, self-tape style. When I say self-tape style, that means you're the only one on camera and you have a scene partner off-camera that you're going to interact with and perform a scene together where they speak and you react to them and you speak, right? This is different from a monologue where you're the only one talking. Do something like that to show your acting ability because if you don't have that, you don't really get to showcase to other people what your acting ability is, right? So think of it this way: if you were to hire someone who was a musician and they played, let's say, violin, you wouldn't trust them if they just told you they're a good violinist, right? You would want to hear what they sound like, so they got to send you something. Now they don't have to send you a video of them playing at

Carnegie Hall. They just need to send you a video of them playing the violin just to give you an idea. That's what you're going to need to do as a beginning actor. You don't have to show them that you've been in a million dooll movies. They know you're a beginner, but they still need to see your ability. So, that's why you would record something yourself, and that would act as your first demo reel for your career. Now, the last thing I would do if I were starting an acting career today from zero is to start Casting Networks and backstage. You can create a free account on all of these sites. Some of them may require payment in order to do certain things, but you can at least create a free account to see what is out there. Now, on these websites, you can create an account and then look for acting opportunities that fit you, and if you find one, you can submit your headshot, and you can submit your demo reel, and request an audition from these projects. Now, these are things that every actor starts off doing. Nobody

starts off with an agent. We always start off doing these things on our own to build up our experience so that in the future we get an agent. Now, you probably notice that I haven't mentioned an agent yet because knowing what I know now, if I were starting my career today, I know that getting an agent doesn't come right away. Getting an agent comes after you've built up some experience acting on your own because you got to show an agent that you are really serious about this career. You got to show an agent that you have some work experience, that you know what it takes to be a working actor. An agent needs to have confidence in you if they sign you, so you want to show them that if you were to book a job through them, you're going to know exactly what to do when you go on set. You don't need anybody to hold your hand and show you anything. You've already done the work. You've already self-submitted and auditioned on your own and booked jobs on your own and acted on your own so that

You're ready to become a professional actor when you sign with an agent. So, there it is. Those are the steps that I would take if I were starting my career today from absolute zero. That doesn't mean you have to take exactly those same steps because this career can have multiple paths to success, but this is coming from my own experience of being a working actor for the last 15 years. So, hopefully, this helps you, and hopefully, you can take a few things away from it. If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up, and if you have any questions, please drop them down in the comments below. I'll try to answer as many as I can. Until next time, keep practicing, keep learning, and I hope to see you on set one day.

If I Had to Start Acting from 0 - Here’s What I Would Do in 2024

Acting Career Center

Taking acting classes is the essential first step to improve and train as an actor.

A high-quality cell phone photo can be used as a headshot initially, while trying to mimic professional headshots for inspiration.

Creating a demo reel and pursuing other sources of income to supplement acting income are also important steps in building a successful acting career.

Meeting your acting coaches and fellow students is essential for building a supportive network.

Pursuing background work as an extra in movies and TV shows can provide valuable experience and opportunities.

Learning how to audition effectively is crucial, as it requires a different skill set than acting and involves applying learned skills to a limited and specific situation.

Background acting offers valuable on-set experience and can be seen as a paid internship.

Flexible job opportunities are essential to support the unpredictable income of acting.

Building experience independently is crucial before seeking an agent, as they need to have confidence in your work and commitment to the career.

Beginner actors can create their own demo reel, even without prior experience, by showcasing self-made projects.

Being an extra on film or TV productions offers valuable learning opportunities and insight into the industry.

While headshots are important, beginners should wait to invest in professional sessions until they have a better understanding of the industry.

Recording a demo reel is essential for beginners to showcase their acting ability.

Creating free accounts on Casting Networks and Backstage can help find acting opportunities and submit headshots and demo reels for auditions.

It's important to research and be cautious of scams in the industry, and to have a strategic plan for investing in headshots.

Signing with an agent is a crucial step to becoming a professional actor.

It's important to have a steady income through side hustles to support the pursuit of an acting career.

Recording a demo reel with a phone, using a self-tape style, is an effective way to showcase acting abilities.