Click on one of these sample acting resumes to see an acting resume example:
Below you’ll find notes on each acting resume sample to help you learn how to format and write a professional-looking acting resume that gets you those acting auditions.
In both samples, the format is basically the same. Credits appear in 3 columns with the title of the play, film or television show in the 1st column, the role played in the 2nd column and the theater or production company in the 3rd column.
For more online acting classes on acting resumes, see our acting resume format page.
Notice how in both of these acting resume samples, the actors chose a simple black font and stuck to it. (Note: These are just acting resume examples. The actors and their credits are made up.)
Sample Acting Resume 1
This sample acting resume is a sample acting resume of a beginning actor based in New York City.
General notes
Notice how the resume is aligned to the left to allow the actor to cut his resume down to the 8×10 format. It’s better to have a balanced resume then one that ends half-way through the page, so this beginning actor uses a larger font and spaces to fill the entire page from top to bottom.
Top of the page
This actor is starting out and doesn’t have an agent or manager yet, so he writes his own contact information centered below his name.
Experience
- This actor lives in New York, so he lists his theater credits first.
- Most of this beginning actor’s roles were in plays he performed at the theatre of the acting school he went to, the Orion Theatre. There is plenty of room on his resume to add the name of the guest director or acting teacher for each production.
- The imaginary actor on this first sample acting resume is primarily a musical theater actor, so he lists his two strongest musical credits first. His first credit shows that he has performed a lead role in a musical. In the second credit, he has a smaller part but at a professional off-Broadway theater. He includes straight acting credits, comedy roles and a Shakespeare play right afterwards to show he has range and keeps his smaller musical role and appearance in a one-act play for further down the list.
- So far, this actor fresh out of acting school has only appeared in short films and student films. Since none of the titles of the films are recognizable, he lists his roles as “lead” or “supporting” rather then by the character name. He also includes any film festivals the films were in to add extra credibility.
Training
As a beginning actor, you can allow more space for training. Here we see the name of the acting school the actor got an acting degree from, as well as some extra information on areas of studies, key acting teachers and extra workshops and classes the actor attended.
Special skills
The actor spreads his special skills over 3 lines, dividing them by types of skills, to reach the bottom of the page.
Sample Acting Resume 2
This sample acting resume is a sample acting resume of an experienced actress living in Los Angeles.
General notes
This resume is centered as it would appear if posted online on the actress’ website or on a casting site.
Top of the page
- This is an experienced actress with representation, so instead of writing down her contact information, she has her agent and manager information at the top of her resume. If this actress was using this resume for commercials, she would include her commercial agent’s information instead.
- Since the actress in this acting resume example is also part of the acting unions, she includes her affiliation at the top of her resume: SAG for “Screen Actors Guild”, AEA for “Actor’s Equity” and AFTRA for the “American Federation of Television and Radio Artists”.
Experience
- Since this actress is based in LA, she lists her screen credits first. She has several credits in each category, so she separates her film and television roles under two separate headings.
- Let’s say her top film credits include 2 studio films and one successful independent film. Since these would most likely be recognizable movie titles, she lists the names of the character she played and uses “lead” and “supporting” for the other less recognizable films she acted in. She also chooses to list the director names for her lesser known credits as a casting director is more likely to know an up and coming director then the name of a small production company.
- Since she has a lot of feature credits, she doesn’t include the short films and student films she worked on among her film credits.
- For television, she starts with her most impressive credit, a “recurring role” on CSI, which means she appears regularly on the series, although she doesn’t appear on every episode like a “series regular” would (for example, she may be an expert the CSI team consults from time to time).
- She goes on to list her experience as a “guest star” on well-known television shows for major networks (a “guest star” is when an actor plays the main character the intrigue centers around during one episode). Then she lists a “series regular” credit in a pilot and a lead role in movie of the week for cable TV. After, she lists her “guest star” roles for cable television shows, followed by her “co-star” appearances (“co-star” roles are usually smaller parts). When she is ready to move to the next level of her career and only accept guest star roles, she could choose to delete all her co-star credits from her resume.
- She also includes a recurring role on a soap opera. Since she’s not particularly interested in soap opera acting, she lists this credit last.
- Because she has a lot of credits, this actress only lists her most impressive roles performed at well-known theaters under the Theater heading.
Training
Unlike for a beginning actor, all the information needed here beyond the name of the acting school and degree obtained is the most impressive highlights, in this case a master class in London. This actress also chooses to include the name of her acting coach as he is well-respected in the industry.
Special skills
All the special skills are listed in a row, to save space for credits.
Hope these sample acting resumes and quick online acting class on actor resumes help you get more acting auditions. Good luck writing YOUR resume!