The GotAuditions Academy · The Acting Résumé
The Acting Résumé
One page. No paragraphs. No objective statement. An acting résumé is not a résumé — it is a credits list, and it follows rules the corporate world has never heard of. Sixteen chapters and a free template. Free.
CREDITS
Project / Role
/ Director
3 columns
Project / Role
/ Director
3 columns
NO OBJECTIVE
ONE PAGE
SPECIAL
SKILLS
Only if true
SKILLS
Only if true
Trim: 8 x 10
NO ATS HERE
What you'll learn
The three-column rule — and why column two changes depending on the medium
What goes on it when you have no credits at all (and what marks you as green)
Theatre, musical theatre, film, commercial and the UK CV — five different documents
Age, student films, and what actually happens when you lie
Pairs with this tool
Coach Me
A résumé gets you in the room. It cannot act for you once you are there. When the credits start coming, the work has to hold up — and that is what Coach Me is for.
Open Coach MeThe Chapters
All 16 Chapters
I
It is not a job application. It is a casting document, and the rules invert.
What It Actually Is
→
II
The industry-standard layout, free, in Word and Google Docs. Nothing to sign up for.
The Free Template
→
III
Two résumés, one actor, one career. One gets him in the room. One gets deleted.
Good vs Bad Example
→
IV
An empty credits section is a stage, not a shame. Four things honestly belong there today.
No Credits Yet
→
V
One line got an actor two years on The Wire. Another one stopped a shoot.
Special Skills
→
VI
Column two changes meaning by medium. Role type for screen, character name for stage.
The Three-Column Rule
→
VII
One page. Everyone agrees. Almost everything else you have been told is unsourced.
Format & Length
→
VIII
Theatre outsearches film nineteen to one — and it wants the theatre, not the tier.
The Theatre Résumé
→
IX
The only acting résumé with a hard technical spec. Get the range notation wrong and you have told them you are not a singer.
Musical Theatre
→
X
Screen credits use tiers, not names. And the commercial world has one rule nobody tells you: conflicts.
Film, TV & Commercial
→
XI
The staple is on life support. The PDF is not. Here is the honest state of the paper résumé.
Headshot + Résumé
→
XII
Contested. To an agent: yes, four sentences. To a casting director: usually a red flag.
The Cover Letter
→
XIII
A4, not 8x10. Playing age. Spotlight PIN. And no personal statement — whatever the template sites told you.
The UK Acting CV
→
XIV
You can’t. Not because of a law — because of a phone call from a line producer at six in the morning.
Age, Lies and Student Films
→
XV
Actors Access lets casting sort submissions by “Profile Completeness.” That is not a metaphor. It is a dropdown.
Where It Actually Goes
→
XVI
A child’s résumé is handed to strangers. Four things must come off it — and one of them is on almost every template you will find.
Child and Teen Résumés
→