Your acting resume is not like a regular resume. If you format it like one — with a professional summary, bullet points about your communication skills, and a section about your proficiency in Microsoft Excel — casting directors will know immediately that you're new. Which is fine, everyone starts somewhere. But you don't need to advertise it.
Acting resumes follow a specific format that the industry has used for decades. It's simple once you know it. The problem is nobody teaches you this unless you happen to ask the right person or stumble into the right class. So let's fix that.
The Basic Layout
An acting resume is one page. Always. Even if you've been working for thirty years. One page, printed on 8x10 paper to match the back of your headshot — or more commonly now, submitted as a PDF alongside your headshot through casting platforms.
Here's the structure from top to bottom:
Your Name
Centered at the top, larger than everything else. This is the biggest text on the page. No nicknames. No stage names unless that's what you actually go by professionally.
Contact Information
Directly under your name. If you have an agent, list your agency name, your agent's name, and their phone number and email. That's it. Casting contacts your agent, not you.
If you don't have representation yet, list your own phone number and email. Some actors use a dedicated acting email rather than their personal one, which is a reasonable move.
Do not put your home address on your resume. Your city is fine — "Toronto, ON" or "Los Angeles, CA" — but not your street address. This document gets passed around. Keep it professional.
Union Status
Right under your contact info, note your union status: SAG-AFTRA, ACTRA, Equity, or Non-Union. If you're in multiple unions, list them all. This matters because it tells casting immediately whether you can work on their project.
The Credits Section
This is the core of your resume. Your credits are organized into categories, and within each category, listed in a three-column format:
Project Title | Role | Production Company / Director
That's the standard. Title on the left, role in the middle, production company or director on the right. Clean columns, easy to scan.
Credit Categories
List your credits in these sections, in this order:
Film Feature films, short films, independent films. List the title, your role, and the director or production company.
Television TV series, pilots, web series with real production value. Include the network or streaming platform if it's recognizable.
Theatre Stage productions. Instead of director/production company in the right column, theatre credits usually list the theatre company or venue and the director. Format: Title | Role | Theatre Company (Director).
Commercial Here's the one exception to the three-column rule: for commercials, you typically just write "Conflicts available upon request" rather than listing individual commercials. This is because of exclusivity conflicts — if you booked a Toyota commercial and then listed it, you might get passed over for a Honda audition. Keeping it vague protects you.
If you're non-union and have done local or regional commercials with no exclusivity concerns, you can list them. But the "conflicts upon request" line is standard for union actors.
New Media / Web Series If you have credits in web content, YouTube series, or digital-first productions, these can go in their own section or be folded into Film or Television depending on the production scale.
Voiceover If you do VO work, give it its own section.
Training
After your credits, list your training. This is especially important if you're early in your career and your credits section is thin. Format:
Program or Class | Teacher/School | Location
For example:
- Scene Study | Susan Batson Studio | New York, NY
- Meisner Technique | The Neighborhood Playhouse | New York, NY
- BFA in Theatre | University of Toronto | Toronto, ON
List your most impressive or relevant training first. If you studied with a well-known teacher, that carries weight. If you have a degree in theatre, include it. If you took a weekend workshop at a community center, maybe don't lead with that.
Ongoing training is a good signal. If you're currently in class, you can note it: "Ongoing Scene Study | Teacher Name | City."
Special Skills
The last section. This is where you list genuinely castable skills — things that could get you booked for a specific role or that a production might need.
Good special skills:
- Specific dialects and accents (British RP, Southern American, Newfoundland)
- Languages you actually speak (conversational or fluent — be honest)
- Athletic skills you can actually do on camera (stage combat, horseback riding, swimming, basketball)
- Musical instruments you play at a performance level
- Singing (with range: tenor, alto, etc.)
- Valid licenses or certifications (motorcycle license, PADI scuba certification, firearms training)
- Unique skills that come up in casting (figure skating, sign language, bartending, medical training)
Bad special skills:
- "Good with kids" (not a skill, everyone claims this)
- "Quick learner" (this is a regular resume phrase, not an acting one)
- "Microsoft Office" (absolutely not)
- Vague sports ("athletic" — be specific)
- Skills you did once ten years ago and couldn't perform on set tomorrow
The rule: if a director said "great, we need you to do that on camera on Thursday," could you actually do it competently? If not, take it off.
I once listed "juggling" on my resume because I could sort of keep three balls in the air. I got asked to juggle at a callback. I could not, in fact, juggle under pressure. Lesson learned.
Common Resume Mistakes
Padding with Extra Work
Do not list background work (extra work) on your acting resume. Background is not a credit. Listing it tells casting you don't understand the difference, and it fills space that should be reserved for actual roles.
The one gray area: if you were a "featured extra" or "special business" with specific direction and visible screen time, some actors include it when they're very early in their careers. But drop it as soon as you have real credits to replace it with.
Lying About Credits
Don't do it. Casting directors talk to each other. Directors remember who was in their projects. The industry is smaller than you think. If you list a credit you don't have, there's a real chance someone in the audition room worked on that project and knows you weren't in it.
If your resume is thin, that's okay. A short honest resume is infinitely better than a long fake one.
Using the Wrong Format
Don't submit a traditional corporate resume. Don't use a fancy graphic design template with icons and progress bars. Don't add a headshot thumbnail to the resume itself — your headshot is a separate document.
Keep it clean, simple, and in the standard format. Casting directors scan resumes in seconds. They know exactly where to look for information because every acting resume follows the same layout. Don't make them hunt for it.
Including Your Age
Don't put your age or date of birth on your resume. Your type and playing range matter more than your actual age, and listing it can work against you if casting has a specific age in mind that doesn't match your number but does match your look.
Height and weight are sometimes included in the stats line near the top, depending on market norms. Height is common. Weight is less common now and generally unnecessary.
What If You Have No Credits?
Everyone starts with a blank resume. Here's how to handle it without looking like you printed a mostly empty page:
Lead with training. If you've studied seriously, your training section can carry weight even without credits. A solid training list tells casting you're invested and prepared.
Include student films and indie projects. If you've been in student films, no-budget shorts, or community theatre, those are real credits. List them.
Do the work to get credits. Self-submit for projects through casting platforms. Audition for indie films, short films, web series, and theatre. Build your resume by actually doing the work.
Don't pad with nonsense. A resume with three real credits and solid training looks better than a resume stuffed with fake categories to fill space.
Keeping It Updated
Your resume is a living document. Update it every time you book something. Remove older, less impressive credits as you accumulate better ones. Your resume should always represent your strongest, most relevant work.
A good habit: after you wrap any project, update your resume immediately while the details are fresh. Title, role, director, production company — get it right and get it on there.
The Bottom Line
Your acting resume is a simple document with a specific format. Name at the top, contact info, union status, credits in clean three-column sections, training, and special skills. One page. No fluff. No lies.
Get the format right, keep it honest, and let your work speak for itself. Casting directors have seen thousands of resumes. They don't need yours to be creative. They need it to be clear.
Now go book something so you have a reason to update it.