How to become a background actor: sign-up, pay and set rules in Los Angeles

How to become a background actor: register online with a background casting company such as Central Casting, answer its availability messages quickly, and accept the bookings you can do. No experience is needed, but you must be legally authorized to work in the US (Central Casting). In Los Angeles, a union background day pays at least $231 from July 1, 2026, and non-union work pays by the hour at no less than the local minimum wage.

Background actors (extras) fill the world behind the principal actors: diners in a restaurant, commuters on a platform, a crowd at a game. It is paid, it puts you on real sets, and it can make you eligible for SAG-AFTRA, but it is not a speaking role. This guide covers sign-up, what a day pays and how to check it, what happens on set, the union path and the fees you should never pay.

Background pay in LA, current periods. SAG-AFTRA background actor: $231 a day; special ability background: $241; stand-ins and photo doubles: $270 (July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027). Non-union: California minimum $16.90 an hour; City of Los Angeles $18.42 and unincorporated LA County $18.47 from July 1, 2026; time and a half after 8 hours in a day.

Background roles are not auditioned: casting staff search registered profiles by look, size and availability. Your profile is your audition.

1. Check eligibility. You need US work authorization. Union and non-union performers are both welcome and no experience is required. For anyone under 18, a parent or guardian creates and manages the account, and babies must be at least 15 days old (Central Casting). Minors also need a California entertainment work permit; see how to become a child actor.
2. Take the two required photos yourself. A forward-facing color headshot from the shoulders up and a head-to-toe full-body shot in a neutral pose, not a selfie, on a solid white or light background, with no hats, sunglasses, props or filters, saved as .jpeg or .png. Central Casting does not accept professional headshots for background, because they are often retouched, and asks you to avoid white clothing and to cover your torso (Central Casting). In California the photos must pass review before you can work.
3. Fill in sizes and appearance accurately and e-sign the forms. Sizes are used for wardrobe and to cast stand-ins and doubles (Central Casting).
4. Complete a Form I-9 during sign-up. It is required in California, New York, Georgia and Louisiana, using the federal list of acceptable documents (Central Casting).
5. Say whether you are a SAG-AFTRA member. Members add their membership number, which staff verify; casting asks because many clients are union signatories and must follow its hiring rules (Central Casting).
6. Add photos that widen your range: casual, business and formal looks, one or two in unique costumes, and any vehicles you are willing to bring on set. Update the profile after a haircut, a new beard or a new car (Central Casting).

This guide quotes Central Casting because it publishes its rules in detail. Other background casting companies also cast in Los Angeles; check each one's own site for its sign-up, and apply the fee test in the scams section below before you register.

Once you are registered, work arrives as messages. Central Casting describes four stages (Central Casting):

• Availability inquiry by email and text. Reply available or unavailable. Casting directors and production companies "prefer you say no rather than not responding at all," and a no does not affect future messages.
• Open roles. Most bookings come through messages, but unusual looks and special-skill roles are posted on an Open Roles page for submissions. Submit exactly as instructed.
• Booking offer. "You must accept this offer to be considered booked on that production." An inquiry alone is not a booking.
• Booking details, usually sent late the evening before. They list your call time, location, check-in instructions and wardrobe, hair and makeup notes. Reply so casting knows you received them (Central Casting).

Production sets call times, and background actors cannot ask to change them. Check your details before bed and again when you wake up, and accept a booking only if you are free all day with no time restrictions (Central Casting).

Pay depends on where the production films, the guaranteed hours, whether the job is SAG-AFTRA or non-union, and extras such as overtime, supplemental fees and meal allowances (Central Casting).

• Union background actor (SAG-AFTRA Schedule X, film and TV): $224 a day to June 30, 2026, then $231 from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027, rising each July to $252 in 2029 (AMPTP).
• Special ability background actor: $10 above the general rate, so $241 from July 2026.
• Stand-ins and photo doubles: $270 from July 2026.
• Swimmers and skaters: $597 from July 2026.
• Non-union background: an hourly wage that cannot go below the minimum where you work. California's is $16.90 in 2026, and "some cities and counties have higher minimum wages than the state's rate" (California DIR). From July 1, 2026 the City of Los Angeles minimum is $18.42, unincorporated LA County and Santa Monica $18.47, and Pasadena $18.57 (Davis Wright Tremaine).

Long days matter more than the rate. Under California law, nonexempt employees get one and a half times their regular rate for hours over 8 in a day and double time over 12 (California DIR). A worked example at the minimum, before taxes: a 10-hour non-union day inside the City of Los Angeles is 8 × $18.42 = $147.36 plus 2 × $27.63 = $55.26, or $202.62. The same day at the state minimum is $135.20 + $50.70 = $185.90. Union days follow the contract's own overtime and adjustment rules on top of the day rate.

Allowances and adjustments, often called bumps, are extra payments for the day that a production representative records on your voucher (Central Casting). If one is missing when you sign, it is easy to lose, which is why the next section matters. For how background pay compares with principal and commercial work, see how much actors make. Background work does not earn residuals unless you are upgraded to a principal; see acting residuals.

Your voucher is your timecard for the day and holds all of your pay information. Productions use either a digital SmartVoucher or a paper voucher (Central Casting).

• SmartVoucher. You get an email at call time with tasks for that work day. You cannot see the voucher until it is sent for your approval at wrap (Central Casting).
• Paper voucher. At check-in, write your full legal name, contact details and at least the last four digits of your Social Security number. A production representative fills in check-in, meal and wrap times and any allowances or adjustments during the day (Central Casting).
• Check it before you sign. Compare the times and every bump against your own notes, and "raise any questions with production before signing and returning your voucher." Keep the copy production gives you; paper copies are not uploaded to your online profile (Central Casting).
• Mind the 24 hours. Once a voucher is sent for review you have 24 hours to approve or query it; after that it is deemed approved (Central Casting).

Central Casting's payroll runs through Entertainment Partners, paid by check or direct deposit set up in the free myEP portal (Central Casting). Checks go by first-class mail, are not mailed in work-date order because productions submit vouchers on different schedules, and cannot be picked up in person. You are an employee, so taxes are withheld and you get a W-2 through EP (Central Casting).

1. Pack the night before: photo ID, any documents listed in your booking details, and your SAG-AFTRA card if you are a member (Central Casting).
2. Pack the wardrobe and props your details request, following them rather than your own taste; looks follow the show's style (Central Casting). Arrive camera ready (Central Casting).
3. Plan the trip. You are responsible for your own transportation and travel costs (Central Casting). For studio lots, check the online map for the gate, parking structure and check-in location before you leave (Central Casting).
4. Arrive on time and check in exactly as your details describe; fill in or confirm your voucher.
5. Wait in Holding between setups. Snacks and something to do are fine; bring headphones so you do not disturb anyone (Central Casting).
6. Work the scene, then repeat it take after take (rules below).
7. Get wrapped, then check your voucher. "Never leave set without an assistant director specifically telling you you're wrapped" (Central Casting).

Direction comes from the 2nd AD, 2nd 2nd AD or a production assistant, not the director (Central Casting). The rules that keep you rebooked:

• Never look into the lens. It breaks the fourth wall and ruins the take (Central Casting).
• On "quiet on set," stay silent and still on your mark until the 1st AD gives the next instruction (Central Casting).
• Pantomime conversations. You mouth words so the principals' dialogue records clean; Central Casting suggests "watermelon," "rhubarb" or "peas and carrots" (Central Casting).
• Remember your action (where you start, when you move, where you end) so you can repeat it in every take.
• "Back to one" means return to your starting position. A cross is passing through the camera's view, sometimes directly in front of the lens (Central Casting).
• Wait to be told when to interact with a principal actor; the AD or PA sets when and where you move (Central Casting).

Watching how a scene is blocked, lit and reset is the real education of a background day; pair it with an on-camera class if you want speaking roles (see the on-camera and self-tape classes guide).

On union productions some background spots are covered by the SAG-AFTRA contract. Union members are hired for those first, and non-union performers get union vouchers only when more people are needed, which is competitive in Los Angeles and can take months or years (NeedACrew).

Three days of SAG-AFTRA-covered background work make you eligible to join, according to both Wrapbook and NeedACrew. They disagree on proof: Wrapbook says each union voucher counts as one third, while NeedACrew says vouchers alone are not accepted and the union wants pay stubs or payroll records showing dates and wages. Keep both for every union day, and confirm current requirements with SAG-AFTRA before you apply.

Eligibility is a door, not an obligation to walk through it straight away. Joining has a one-time initiation fee, which NeedACrew puts at roughly $3,000 nationally, plus dues, so read the union section of how to become an actor and ask SAG-AFTRA about current fees and its rules for members before you decide.

Background work attracts paid "calling services," listing sites and pay-to-play offers. California's law is specific. No one may run an advance-fee talent representation service: one that charges an artist for photos, websites or promotional material, for training, or for procuring work, auditions or representation, including any product you must buy to get those services (California DIR).

Separately, fee-related talent services (listing services that sell audition or job lists, database searches or storage of your materials and availability; counseling; training) may charge, but must use a contract with required terms, give you a 10-day cancellation period and file a $50,000 bond with the Labor Commissioner (California DIR). A fee taken as a percentage of your earnings is not a "fee" under that law.

• Walk away from anyone who wants money before you have worked. "Honest employers, including the federal government, will never ask you to pay to get a job" (FTC).
• Be wary of a required photo package. Central Casting asks for plain self-taken photos and rejects professional headshots for background (Central Casting), so no one needs to sell you a shoot to register.
• Check who pays you. A legitimate background job pays through payroll with a voucher, taxes withheld and a W-2, not cash from a stranger.

The casting calls guide covers wider casting-call scams and the paid platforms for speaking roles.

Background work pays you to learn set etiquette and terminology and can get you SAG-AFTRA eligible. What it does not do is give you a credit to put on a résumé or footage for a reel, so treat it as a day job with an education attached and keep building the actor side in parallel.

• Train in an ongoing class; Arlo's LA Acting Class Price Index shows what classes cost, and audition prep classes focus on the room.
• Get the materials casting asks for on speaking roles: actor headshots (not the plain background photos) and an acting resume.
• Submit for speaking roles through the platforms in the casting calls guide and learn to self-tape.
• Practice material between bookings; for monologues and scenes, use Offbook.