ResumeFinch
Slate resume template
Simple and compact
Creative and performing arts
Acting resume example
An acting resume is a one-page list of credits that travels on the back of your headshot, trimmed to 8x10 so the two line up as one sheet. Casting scans it in seconds for your union status, the size of the roles you have played, where and with whom you trained, and what you can do on cue in the room.
This page covers adult actors working in film, television, theatre, commercials and voiceover, with a variant for stage managers and theatre technicians. The sample is a Chicago stage and screen actor; her productions, theatres, directors and agency are all invented.
The example opens as a new resume you can edit. Free to build and preview; downloads are a one-time payment, no subscription.
The person and employers in this sample are fictional, and its numbers are placeholders to replace with your own.
What to include on an acting resume
Film credits
Each film credit is three parts: the title, the size of the role, and the director. Most film credit lines use the role size rather than the character name, because a casting director in another city knows what Supporting means but not who Detective Hale was.
- Northbound (feature) | Lead | Dir. Hollis Brandt
- Paper Lanterns (short) | Supporting | Dir. Aiyana Torres
- Dry County (feature) | Featured | Dir. Corbin Malloy
Television credits
Television has its own billing tiers, from largest to smallest: Series Regular, Recurring, Guest Star, Co-Star. Pair the tier with the show and the network, studio or production company. Never write Lead or Supporting for a TV role.
- Bridgewater General | Guest Star | Halden Street Productions
- The Night Desk | Co-Star | Fairmont Television
- Common Ground (streaming series) | Recurring | Bluestem Studios
Theatre credits
On stage the character name does carry information, since many readers know the play. Follow it with the theatre, and add the director when the name helps you. Mark tours, premieres and understudy work in parentheses.
- A Doll's House | Nora | Harrow Lane Theatre, Dir. Ruth Okafor
- Our Town | Emily Webb | Copper Hill Playhouse
- Macbeth | Lady Macduff (u/s Lady Macbeth) | Tidewater Shakespeare Company, Dir. Anton Reyes
Training
Casting and agents recognize teachers and programs, so a named coach can open a conversation. List the discipline, then the school or studio, then the teacher. A degree goes here too; there is no separate education section.
- Meisner Technique (2 years) | Fenwick Actors Studio | Harriet Lowe
- Shakespeare in Performance | Summer intensive, Bard's Gate Conservatory | Malcolm Ivers
- Musical Theatre Voice | Private study | Jonah Pettibone
Special skills
Only list what you could do tomorrow if a director asked. Group skills by type so the line stays readable: dialects, languages, music, sports, combat, and licenses such as a motorcycle endorsement.
- Dialects: Scottish (Glasgow), New York, Standard American
- Sports: tennis, rock climbing, figure skating (intermediate)
- Music: guitar, ukulele, harmonizes by ear
Skills for an acting resume
Hard skills
- Script and scene analysis
- Cold reading
- Fast memorization (off book on short notice)
- On-camera technique: marks, eyelines, continuity
- Self-tape production: framing, lighting, sound
- Dialect work
- Stage combat
- Improvisation
- Vocal projection for large houses
- Musical theatre singing (belt and legit)
- Dance: jazz, tap, ballet basics
- Voiceover and audiobook narration
Soft skills
- Taking an adjustment in the room and making it fast
- Punctuality at call times and on set
- Generosity with scene partners and ensemble
- Stamina through long shoot days and eight-show weeks
- Clear, prompt communication with agents and casting
Tools and systems
- Actors Access
- Casting Networks
- Backstage
- Self-tape kit: tripod, LED light, lavalier mic, plain backdrop
- Zoom for live virtual auditions
- Audacity or Adobe Audition for voiceover demos
Licenses and certifications
Acting has no license or certification that casting asks for. The status that matters is union membership: SAG-AFTRA covers film, television, commercials and voiceover, and Actors' Equity Association (AEA) covers stage actors and stage managers. Put it on the line under your name. Actors who have qualified to join SAG-AFTRA but not yet joined, often after a Taft-Hartley report on a union job, write SAG-AFTRA Eligible. If you belong to neither union, you can leave the line off; some actors write Non-Union instead.
Metrics to put on an acting resume
| What is measured | How to phrase it |
|---|---|
| Role size | Film: Lead, Supporting, Featured. Television: Series Regular, Recurring, Guest Star, Co-Star. |
| Episode count on recurring roles | Common Ground (streaming series) | Recurring, 6 episodes | Bluestem Studios |
| Tour or run scale | Our Town (national tour) | Emily Webb | Copper Hill Productions, 64 performances |
| Finished hours (audiobook narrators) | Audiobook narration: 9 titles, 62 finished hours |
| Festival selections and awards | Glass Orchard (short) | Lead | Dir. Wren Abernathy (festival official selection) |
Summary examples for an acting resume
Non-union actor and recent BFA graduate with 10 stage credits, two student films and a regional commercial. Trained in Meisner and Viewpoints, quick off book, and set up for same-day self-tapes from a home studio.
SAG-AFTRA and AEA actor based in Chicago with guest star and co-star television credits, supporting roles in two independent features, and leading roles at regional theatres including Hedda in Hedda Gabler. Strong in classical text and dialects, fluent in Spanish.
Voice actor and audiobook narrator with 40+ finished titles in literary fiction and memoir, plus animation and commercial voiceover. Records and edits from a treated home booth, connects for directed remote sessions, and delivers clean, publisher-ready files.
Section order for an acting resume
- 1Name, larger than anything else on the page
- 2Union status and stats on one line: height, hair, eyes, and voice type for musical theatre
- 3Representation (agent or manager), or your own phone and email if unrepresented
- 4Credits grouped by medium, strongest medium first
- 5Commercial: "Conflicts and list available upon request"
- 6Training: school or studio, discipline, teacher
- 7Special skills
Union status and stats sit at the top because they decide which auditions you can be seen for and whether you match the breakdown, before anyone reads a credit. Screen actors put Film and Television first; for a stage audition, move Theatre to the top. Commercials are usually not listed by brand, since a named product can raise a conflict with a competing spot, so a single request line stands in for them. Training and skills come last because casting checks them only after the credits have held their attention. Acting resumes skip the summary entirely; the summaries above are for the places where you do need prose.
Variants by setting
Musical theatre
- Add voice type and range to the stats line, such as Mezzo-Soprano (F3 to E5) or Baritone (A2 to G4), and list dance styles with a level.
- Under Training, name voice teachers and dance studios separately from acting teachers, since musical theatre directors look for both.
Voiceover and audiobooks
- Group credits by category (animation, commercial, narration, video games) and put a link to your demo reels in the contact line.
- Describe your home studio in Special Skills: microphone, booth treatment and whether you can connect for live directed sessions.
Stage managers and theatre technicians
- A crew resume lists production, position and venue, with the director or designer you worked under: "Twelfth Night | Assistant Stage Manager | Riverbend Stage, Dir. Paolo Graziani." Positions include Production Stage Manager, Light Board Operator, Sound Engineer, Deck Crew and Wardrobe.
- Swap the stats line for skills and equipment: ETC Eos consoles, QLab, Vectorworks, rigging and fly systems, sewing machines. Stage managers can be Equity members; stagehands and technicians are often represented by IATSE locals.
- No headshot and no 8x10 trim: a technician's resume is a standard Letter page, and experience entries with a few bullets suit it as well as one-line credits.
Building it in ResumeFinch
- ResumeFinch has no three-column credits table. Each credit is one line in a custom section, with a vertical bar between the parts: "Hamlet | Ophelia | Dir. A. Name, Riverside Rep". The columns will not align down the page the way a tabbed word processor file can, but every line keeps its parts in the right order in the PDF and the Word file.
- Make one custom section per medium (Film, Television, Theatre, plus Commercial and Training) and drag them into order. Hide Summary, Experience and Education, which an acting resume does not use, and rename Skills to Special Skills.
- Union status and stats go in the Job title field, which prints on the line under your name. Put your agent in a one-line Representation section, or use your own phone and email if you self-submit.
- There is no photo field in any template. That matches how the industry works: the headshot is its own 8x10 print and the resume goes on the back of it.
- Pages are US Letter (8.5 x 11 in). Print, then trim a quarter inch from each side and half an inch from the top and bottom to reach 8x10. Linen opens with Airy spacing and 0.78 in margins, so text stays inside the cut as long as the page does not fill to the bottom.
- Building and previewing are free with no signup. The PDF and Word (.docx) downloads are a one-time payment; upload the PDF to casting sites and print from it for in-person auditions.
Common mistakes on an acting resume
- Listing background or extra work as credits.
- Leave background work off. It tells casting you have been on a set, not that you have played a role, and it makes the real credits look thin by comparison.
- Calling a TV role Lead or Supporting.
- Use the television tiers (Series Regular, Recurring, Guest Star, Co-Star). Mixing film terms into TV credits suggests you do not know how the job was billed.
- Claiming a union status you do not hold.
- Write SAG-AFTRA only once you have joined, and SAG-AFTRA Eligible only once you have actually qualified. Equity stopped admitting new Equity Membership Candidates in May 2023, so EMC is not a status a newer actor can add.
- Stats that no longer match the headshot or the person walking in.
- Update hair color and the headshot together. Leave age and age range off; casting reads your playing range from the photo and the audition.
- Text running to the edges of the Letter page, then cut off by the trim.
- Keep at least three quarters of an inch of margin on every side and do not fill the page to the last line, so nothing is lost when you trim to 8x10.
Frequently asked questions
How do I attach an acting resume to my headshot?
Print the resume, trim it to 8x10, and staple it to the back of the headshot with the photo facing out, either at all four corners or at the top and bottom center, keeping staples off your text. Several university theatre guides advise against paper clips and glue, which let the sheets separate. Some actors print the resume directly on the back of the photo, which looks clean but means reprinting headshots every time a credit changes.
What does SAG-AFTRA Eligible mean on an acting resume?
It means you have met the requirements to join SAG-AFTRA, most often by being hired on a union production and reported under Taft-Hartley, but have not paid to join yet. It lets casting know they can hire you on a union job. Write it only if it is true, in the same spot you would write SAG-AFTRA.
How do I write an acting resume with no professional credits?
Use what you have, honestly labeled: college and community theatre, student films, staged readings and showcases. Training carries more weight at this stage, so name your program and teachers. Keep special skills specific. Do not pad the page with background work or classes listed as credits.
Should my theatre resume be different from my on-camera resume?
Keep the same credits but change the order. For a stage audition, Theatre goes first and your voice type and range belong on the stats line if the show is a musical. For film and television submissions, lead with screen credits. Keeping two saved versions spares you the reordering before every audition.
Do I need weight or measurements on an acting resume?
Height, hair color and eye color are the stats casting expects. Weight is optional and many actors leave it off. Clothing sizes go on a wardrobe form or a casting site profile when asked, not on the resume stapled to your headshot.
Make this example yours
Open it in the builder, replace the details with your own and watch the page update as you type.
Other templates that suit this job
Browse all resume templates- ATS-safe · 1 column
- ATS-safe · 1 column
Harbor resume template
Classic and centered
- ATS-safe · 1 column
Keystone resume template
Dense and technical
