The box is searchable, and it has a new name
This page’s most quoted line was that a beautifully written paragraph in the About Me box is invisible to the people looking for you. Spotlight’s own current documentation says otherwise, and we have had it wrong.
Two things changed. The section is now called Highlights, renamed as part of a profile redesign this year. And the guidance attached to it is explicit.
The fight we were about to report had already ended
Our research handed us a live dispute between Equity and Spotlight, called it the most perishable thing it had ever given us, and told us to check the status before publishing a word. We checked. Both fronts have moved.
The argument is about whether a paid casting directory that functions as a gate to work is charging a fee to work-seekers. Equity says it is. Spotlight says it is a subscription, not an agency fee. Two routes were being pursued and one of them is over.
On 3 September 2025 the court ruled that Spotlight is a directory and marketing service, not an employment agency. That is a year and a day before this page was written.
On 7 November 2025 Equity and eight of its members won permission to appeal, a judge finding a real prospect of success. No Court of Appeal hearing date has been set.
The Employment Rights Bill received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025. The amendment that would have stopped directories charging performers is not in the Act.
Its only alteration to the employment agencies legislation brings umbrella companies into scope from 2027. That is about payroll intermediaries, not casting directories.
The personal statement, and the source that disagrees
This page traced the personal statement to the corporate CV and told you not to write one. That is still the better advice and it is not unanimous, which we should have said.
The British trade guidance is clear enough. “As a general rule, the cover letter or mini-biography is not appropriate for an acting CV, although there may be instances when they are called for.” Note the second half of that sentence, which we were quietly dropping.
The pattern underneath it is real and worth naming, because we have now found it three times. Generic careers advice is not wrong. It is correct about a different document. The personal statement is the British instance. Keyword optimisation for applicant tracking systems is another. Listing directors as references is a third.
Spotlight’s criteria, as of today
These have been revised more than once and they will be revised again. Everything below is from their own page, last modified on 14 August 2026.
Spotlight describes three avenues rather than four, which is worth getting right because the first one contains two options that are often listed separately.
One thing worth knowing about how that recommendation list has moved. In 2022 it named seven bodies. Their current page names three plus a registered agent. We are not reading anything into that beyond the obvious, which is that this is a moving target and any page telling you these rules should say when it last looked. We last looked on 4 September 2026.
The two doors do not connect
Our research proposed a tidy line: that one Equity-contracted job opens both doors at once. Half of that is right and the half most people would act on is wrong.
An Equity card on its own gets you nothing on Spotlight. None of the three avenues accepts union membership as a qualification. The experience avenue wants a contract or a credit. The recommendation avenue wants an agent or a casting body, and the union is neither.
An Equity contract is not the same thing as Equity membership. A job on one satisfies Spotlight’s first avenue, and separately it is a route into the union.
So the accurate version is: one Equity-contracted job can satisfy both organisations. The card by itself satisfies only one of them.
That distinction matters because an actor who joins the union expecting it to unlock the directory will be disappointed, and nobody warns them.
What actually differs, checked one at a time
This page lists eight differences between a British CV and an American résumé. Six survive intact. Two do not, and one of them is the line we quote most.
Character name on screen credits
What we saidA British CV uses the character’s name throughout, including film and television, where an American one uses the role type.
What Spotlight saysThe character name leads and the billing goes beside it in brackets. Their own examples are Polly (Lead) and Polly (Series Regular).
The corrected versionCharacter name first, billing appended. Not character name only. The direction was right and the absolute form was overstated.
The driving licence
What we saidIt is a field in Britain rather than a special skill.
What we foundThe British guide we rely on puts it inside the skills paragraph: state whether you have one and whether it is clean.
The corrected versionIt belongs on a British CV and it is not a separate field. We are dropping the promotion.
The thumbnail headshot
What we saidTop right.
What we foundConfirmed by the British trade guide, and a second source says either top corner is normal.
VerdictHolds. Top right is the safe choice and top left is not an error.
Playing age, never real age
What we saidMandatory, and your date of birth never appears.
What we foundPlaying age is a core mandatory field that drives search, and the British guide says plainly not to include your actual age or date of birth.
VerdictHolds, both halves, from two different sources.
Film before television
What we saidAn ordering rule.
What we foundOne British guide lists film first. Nobody argues the reverse, and most say order by relevance to the job you are chasing.
VerdictWeakly supported. Treat it as a default rather than a convention.
The Equity membership number
What we saidWe went looking for a source telling actors to put it on a CV and found none.
What we foundA third search, and still nothing stronger than a university careers PDF listing it as optional.
VerdictThe null result stands. Nobody mandates it.
If you cannot get on Spotlight
By this chapter’s own logic a large share of its readers are below the bar it describes, and the chapter has been offering them nothing. Here is the honest picture.
There are other British platforms and they are not equivalent. Being clear about which tier of work each one carries is more useful than listing them as alternatives.
None of these is a substitute for Spotlight in the eyes of the casting directors who work on the biggest British productions. They are supplements, and the honest framing is that they are where the work is while you are qualifying rather than where the work is instead.
Ireland is a different union
This chapter says Britain throughout and means it, and there are readers on the other side of the Irish Sea for whom that is not the same subject.
Irish Equity is a separate trade union, operating within SIPTU, representing performers in the Republic of Ireland. It is not a regional branch of the British union.
Grading the sources
This is the heaviest correction list we have run on any page, and most of it is about us rather than about our research.
One thing worth saying plainly about this list. Five of the twelve rows are corrections to our own page rather than to anybody else’s research, and two of them were lines we were proudest of. That is uncomfortable and it is also the point of publishing this section at all. A page about which claims survive checking has to survive checking.
Where we differ from the standard account
Is the free-text box worth writing?
Commonly saidWrite something warm about yourself.
What we foundYes, and it is searchable. But credits typed there miss the structured filters, which is a different problem.
Does an Equity card get you onto Spotlight?
Commonly saidAssumed to help.
What we foundNo. None of the three avenues accepts membership. A contract is a different thing entirely.
Is the Spotlight fee being challenged?
Commonly saidReported as an ongoing fight.
What we foundEquity lost in September 2025 and is appealing. The Bill passed in December without the clause.
Do you need a personal statement?
Commonly saidHalf the internet says yes.
What we foundThe main British guide says generally not, in a sentence that allows exceptions. Another British platform says write one.
Character name or billing on screen credits?
Commonly saidCharacter name, if you read British advice. Role type, if you read American.
What we foundBoth, in that order. The character name leads and the billing goes in brackets.
Where does the driving licence go?
Commonly saidWe said it was a British field of its own.
What we foundIt sits in the skills section, with whether the licence is clean. That is all anybody says.
What if you cannot get on Spotlight?
Commonly saidNothing, usually.
What we foundMandy and Casting Networks UK carry real work. StarNow is explicitly the entry tier. None replaces Spotlight.
Do one thing tonight. Open your Spotlight profile and look at the section now called Highlights. If it is empty because of something we wrote, put something in it — and then check that every credit you own is entered in the Credits area as well, because that is the part the precise searches actually reach.