As an actor, it is a daunting thing to look at a path in front of you and wonder how you get started. Even the very first step on your career journey can be gruelling—sometimes years in the making—and it seldom guarantees you’ll end up in the place you set out to reach. Here at StageMilk, we talk a lot about the actor’s life and career: how best to navigate an industry that is both exciting and unforgiving. But today, we turn our focus to the very beginning. Let’s explore how to start an acting career with no experience.
While it is difficult to establish yourself in an acting career experience, there are certain avenues that may give you an all-important first break. Actors with no experience should look at extras work and commercials—both of which could be secured by signing with a specialty agent in either field. Actors can also break into the industry by creating their own opportunities: writing, producing and directing their own films and shows.
Before we jump into the topic at hand, just a quick clarification: our focus today is kickstarting your career, not beginning the craft of acting itself. For that, we’d suggest looking at any of our articles on going to drama school, taking an acting class or our dedicated article how to get into acting without any experience.
Establishing a Brand and a Presence
Along with headshots, a showreel and a strong acting CV, a social media presence is an important aspect of a modern acting career. You’ll want accounts across various social media platforms, as well as online casting networks such as Casting Networks and StarNow. It’s a lot of work—and requires constant maintenance and input—but it radically alters the places that casting directors and creatives might discover you.
Can you find yourself ‘discovered’ on social media and begin a career there? Yes. What’s more, a strong social media presence is an important factor when you’re being chosen for certain roles, such as a host on a tv series. However, it’s not enough to simply rely on your headshots on Instagram pulling a crowd of potential employers. And it’s doubly difficult if you spend the majority of your time promoting an acting TikTok channel than working on your acting skills.
You’re best to think of your brand and social media presence as something that supplements your other early-career efforts. Otherwise you risk becoming that actor who posts more pictures of themselves than the jobs they do. That guy tends to signal to the industry that “I’ve not got much going on right now.”
Extras and Background Acting
A lot of people interested in the film and television industry get their start working as background actors in large-budget projects. Often, casting in these roles relates more to look than anything else, and so it’s simple enough to be hired without so much as a school play on your CV.
To work as an extra, you’ll need to join an agency that accommodates this kind of work. It can pay well, and give you some valuable on-set experience at a professional level. The only thing to remember is that an agency who hires you as a background actor is not going to send you for featured acting parts—they’re often less likely to do so when they have you on their books as the other.
Finally, extras roles tend not to count towards your legitimate acting credits. It can be a lucrative career, but actually sets you on a different path than towards that of an actor in speaking roles.
Acting in Commercials
Similar to background acting, commercials can require little experience or training from an actor, provided they have the right ‘look’. And unlike background acting, commercials do count towards your professional credits on a CV. You can approach an agency with a few headshots, perhaps something you’ve shot at home for a showreel, and you may find yourself lucky enough to be signed.
The downside with commercials is how damn competitive they are. Unlike extras work, commercials are open to trained/established actors as well. And as they pay well for actor and management alike, they tend to be popular jobs to pursue. Agencies will send swathes of actors to each job with the hope that one of them will land the role. Great for your agent, less so for you when you’re competing with your peers.
But, hey: nice work if you can get them. If it sounds like a good fit, then you’d be foolish not to give it a go.
Working in Short and Student Films
Acting in short and student films is some of the best experience you can get in your early career stage. They’re abundant, they’re simple enough to audition for and the commitment to them in terms of your time and effort is proportionately low. Short films are seldom paid gigs, but like commercials they count for a lot when listed on your CV.
Short films are win-win situations for actors. If it’s the worst piece of garbage ever made, you’re likely to learn a lot on that set. Observe, bear witness, and learn from the mistakes of others. It’s certain to bond you to other actors on set—who themselves may become industry peers. And even if it never makes a single festival line-up, you still get a recognised industry credit.
If the film’s great, it can mean exposure at competitions, online, etc. And while you may not be working with Steven Spielberg … you may well be working with his industry successor. Take it from a film school grad: we’re a hungry bunch, keen to pour our lives into our art. Actors benefit greatly from this, and can even find themselves in a terrific actor/director partnership.
Open Calls and Auditions
Be on the lookout for open castings and auditions in your area. You can also search the above-mentioned casting networks sites for opportunities. These gigs tend not to pay much, if it all. But they’re a start, and can lead to more exciting projects by association, or simply by granting you the confidence to keep auditioning.
In fact, even if you aren’t booking any gigs: any opportunity to prepare for an audition is worth its weight in gold when you’re starting your career. It’s an important skill to flex and improve upon, and too many actors let this aspect of their craft stagnate until the Really Big Opportunity comes along. By then, it’s too late to work on your ability to audition—because the rehearsal is the show, and you only get one shot.
So look for chances to audition, line ’em up, knock ’em down and then forget about them. That way, if you get the gig you’ll be pleasantly surprised! Don’t forget that a casting director might take a real shine to you in an audition; even if you’re not right for that particular role, they might have something for you in the future.
Creating Your Own Work
This point is true for the start of your career, as well as in those quiet times when the phone’s not ringing and your agent is missing/presumed dead. Write a vehicle for yourself, produce an independent play, shoot a short film. Create your own path into showbusiness.
In an evolving industry that asks more and more of its participants, it is becoming vital to prove oneself as a multi-hyphenate. It’s no longer enough to simply act: you need to stage manage, produce, direct, write. (Maybe not all of these, but at least a couple.) Some actors find themselves writing because their acting work is slow. We say why wait, when you could start getting good at a new career pathway right now?
The first one-person fringe-festival play you write might not net you an armful of Tony Awards. You’re more likely to lose money on your first producing project than retire to Spain. But that kind of effort pays off, and is always recognised. And if the right person comes to see what you’ve created, you might find your career spinning into some exciting new directions.
Improving your Acting Skills
Education is never a waste. And of all the artists in the world, actors need to hear this the most. Many think that one short course, or three-year degree, will teach them all they need to know for a lifetime of performing. This simply isn’t true.
If you’re looking to kick off an acting career with no experience, consider spending some time and effort directly on your skills. Take a class, refresh your abilities and make some connections. You won’t receive a job offer from an acting teacher (and be very careful of a teacher or coach who promises paid work once you complete their course) but you will establish yourself in your local creative community. Make connections, network, make friends.
Right here at StageMilk, our Scene Club brings together members all over the world looking to improve their acting skills and learn about how to navigate this industry we all share. If you’ve got some lofty career goals in mind, why not join us?!
Conclusion
When it comes to an acting career, there are no guarantees. And that’s a serious downer until you entertain the flipside of that statement: there’s no limit to the ways that you can improve, break out of the pack and live your actor’s life.
So take the advice in this article to heart; learn, if you can, from our team’s collective experiences, successes and failures. And then remember that your path is your own: any way you break into the industry that works is the one that’s right for you.
We all start somewhere.
