How to make an acting resume: format, examples and a free template

An acting resume is a one-page list of your credits, training and skills that travels with your headshot. It is not a business resume: there is no objective, no job history and no paragraphs. The University of Maine's guide makes the same point, and the New York Film Academy describes it as your credits plus contact information, attached to the back of the headshot.

Casting directors and agents read it in seconds: who you are, how to reach you, what you have done, where you trained and what you can do. Hence the fixed order, three columns and one page.

Want to skip the formatting? The free Arlo acting resume builder lays out everything in this guide as you type, fits it to one 8x10 page and prints or saves a PDF. Nothing you type leaves your browser.

Top to bottom, a standard acting resume has a header and then sections of credits, training and skills.

1. Your name, largest on the page, at the top (Backstage).
2. Union status right under your name, for example SAG-AFTRA or AEA (Backstage). If you are not in a union, you can write Non-union or leave the line out; NYFA suggests leaving it blank.
3. Contact and representation: your agent or manager, or your own email and phone if you have no representation. Backstage notes these can go at the top or the bottom of the page.
4. Physical stats: usually height, hair and eyes, plus voice type if you sing. Sources differ on weight: NYFA and Backstage's format guide include it as an option, while the University of Maine's list leaves it out.
5. Credit sections: Film, Television, Commercials and Theatre. In a Backstage expert round-up, one expert gives the standard order as film, television, commercials, voiceover, industrials, theatre, training, special skills.
6. Training, then Special Skills at the very bottom.

The order of credit sections is not fixed. Backstage's theatre resume guide puts theatre first, and NYFA says to start with your main focus. Lead with your strongest medium, or the medium of the job. Within a section, Actors Access lists credits from most recent to least recent; a coach interviewed by Casting Networks puts the strongest first. Pick one and stay consistent.

Credits go in three side-by-side columns (Backstage, NYFA):

• Column 1: the production title.
• Column 2: your role. For film and TV, this is the size of the part (Lead, Co-Star and so on), not the character's name. For theatre, it is the character's name; Casting Networks and Backstage both say so.
• Column 3: who made it. Backstage suggests the director for film and the producer, production company or network for TV. For theatre, list the theatre or company; some resumes add the director.

Leave out dates; the University of Maine and Casting Networks both say you do not need them. On casting sites the layout is the same: the Actors Access help center describes a three-column credits grid with a header row for each category.

No official body defines resume billing labels. A Backstage column on listing roles says its author could not find any industry standard. These are the meanings the sources use, so your labels read the way casting expects:

• Lead and Supporting are film terms (Backstage). A coach quoted by Casting Networks gives the film order as star, lead, supporting.
• Series Regular is a principal actor in a show's main cast, per Central Casting.
• Recurring means you appear in more than one episode (Central Casting).
• Guest Star is a one-episode role, sometimes more (Central Casting). The Backstage roles column advises against this label unless you were contracted as a guest star.
• Co-Star is a smaller TV speaking part with a limited number of lines; Central Casting says the term is used most often for the screen credit.
• Principal is the union term for a performer with a speaking part, as opposed to background. SAG-AFTRA's join rules count a principal or speaking role, and a background performer is upgraded to principal when directed to speak a line. The Backstage roles column says it is highly unusual for a non-speaking role to qualify as principal, and the coach quoted by Casting Networks notes that soaps use principal as the billing label.
• Featured should describe a role that stands out from the background. The Backstage roles column quotes an actor's warning that featured does not mean extra.
• Background (extra work) means non-speaking roles (Central Casting).

Sources disagree about listing background work. Backstage's format guide says not to, because it can make you look like an amateur. If you include it, keep it in its own clearly labeled section and never label it Featured or Principal.

Everyone starts with an empty resume, and casting knows it. In Backstage's expert round-up, one expert's first rule for beginners is to be truthful even with no credits, and another says the first thing casting directors look at is who you trained with. So a first resume is built around training, with whatever real performing you have:

• Put Training near the top. Class, teacher and school, current classes included. Backstage's round-up says an online class can count, but leave off pre-recorded courses.
• List school and community theatre. The University of Maine says high school roles can help while you build a resume, but scenes done in class are not theatre credits.
• List student and independent films. One expert in the Backstage round-up suggests naming the director rather than the university, unless it is a well-known film school. The coach in the Casting Networks piece goes further and would not label a film as a student film at all.
• Fill out Special Skills honestly (see below). Backstage's round-up also suggests drawing on life experience.
• Add backstage work if you have it. The University of Maine suggests a technical positions section early on.

Turn on Beginner mode in the resume builder to get this layout: training first, then stage work and student films, with television and commercials hidden until you have them.

List each class or program with the teacher and the school, in the same three columns as your credits: for example, Scene Study | teacher's name | studio name. Name real teachers and real schools, because casting directors look at who you trained with. Backstage's format guide adds that a one-time casting director workshop does not belong under training.

If this section is thin, fix that first, because it is the section you can build fastest. Arlo lists current acting classes in Los Angeles, checked against each school's own site, and the guide to choosing an acting class covers the ten questions to ask before you pay. The resume builder's school field suggests names from Arlo's directory of LA schools, so you can cite them exactly.

Special skills sit at the very bottom of the page (Backstage). Typical categories are accents and dialects, languages, singing voice type, dance styles, musical instruments, sports, stage combat and driving. The rule Backstage and other sources repeat: list a skill only if you can do it well, on the day, on request. Backstage's skills guide says you must be able to do it, and do it well.

• Be specific. Give the language level (fluent or conversational) and the voice type, not just that you sing. Backstage's format guide uses the example of baritone or alto.
• Accents only if you have studied them, per Backstage's resume basics.
• Skip the obvious. Backstage's skills guide calls a plain driver's license unnecessary, but says driving stick shift is worth noting.
• Useful logistics count. Backstage suggests noting a valid passport and the cities where you can work as a local hire.
• Leave out unrelated skills such as math or Microsoft Word, as Backstage's theatre resume guide advises.

Online, skills are often checkboxes. Casting Networks has actors tick skills from a list and type the rest under Other Experience, which casting directors can search by keyword. The resume builder has a suggestion list by category; every suggestion is optional.

• Your age or birthday. Backstage's resume basics says not to list them. For performers under 18, an expert in Backstage's round-up says to include date of birth.
• Your home address or Social Security number. The University of Maine is emphatic about both.
• Anything untrue or inflated. NYFA and Backstage are blunt about this. Do not upgrade a billing, invent a credit or claim a skill you cannot perform.
• Dates and unrelated jobs. Neither helps casting decide.
• Industrial films, maybe. Backstage's format guide says leave them off; an expert in Backstage's round-up includes them in her standard order. Include one only if it shows real on-camera work.

Write the union you belong to: SAG-AFTRA for film, TV and commercials, AEA (Actors' Equity) for stage, or both. SAG-AFTRA Eligible is a real status. SAG-AFTRA says a performer becomes eligible either through covered work (one day as a principal or speaking performer, or three days of work as a background actor) or by being a paid-up member of an affiliated union such as ACTRA, AEA, AGMA or AGVA for at least a year with paid principal work. Check the page for the full rules before you print the word.

Do not add EMC (Equity Membership Candidate) to a new resume. Actors' Equity says the program was phased out, and Equity now lets anyone who has worked professionally as an actor or stage manager join directly.

A printed acting resume matches the headshot: 8 by 10 inches. NYFA says to trim the resume to fit exactly on the back of an 8x10 headshot. Backstage's resume basics suggests stapling or gluing it to the back, or printing it directly on the back of the headshot. NYFA rules out paper clips and tape. See actor headshots.

Online submissions use a PDF or a casting-site profile, and some university theatre programs want a standard 8.5 x 11 PDF, as the University of Maine's guide does. Follow the instructions of whoever asks. The resume builder prints either an exact 8x10 page or a Letter page with trim marks.

Two examples: a working actor and a beginner. Both are fictional; every name, title, school, phone number and email is invented. Use them as a pattern. Backstage also publishes templates for different career levels.