A guide to Talent Agents (for Actors)

When you are first starting out as an actor, most jobs you get will be through word of mouth or your own work.

For example, you’ll see a casting advertised on enCAST (or somewhere else online) and apply for it and organise the audition yourself, negotiate directly with the production for the fee, and so on.

But as you begin to work more, and start to look for bigger jobs, having an agent is a tremendous help. This article explains why you should get an agent; what an agent does; and how to get an agent.

Reasons to get an agent

Here are just a few reasons you want to think about getting an agent when you begin to work more in the film and television industry as an actor.

  1. Some casting calls are sent directly to agents and are not advertised publicly – you could miss out on these without an agent; often bigger productions will not deal directly with actors at all and only deal with agents
  2. Your agent can negotiate a better fee for jobs
  3. Your agent will be able to look through your contract and make sure it’s the best it can be
  4. Your agent is on your side and always there to give you advice if you’re unsure about a job
  5. and so on…

The simple truth is that the higher up the acting ladder you want to climb, the more important it is to get an agent.

What an agent does

When a production company decides to make a film they will get a list of characters and send that list out to different agents (often it’s easier and more convenient for them to deal with agents than individual actors).

The agent will then propose one or more of their actors to the production house. If the production like the look of an actor they will call them in for an audition. And if successful, the production will then deal with the agent (not the actor) in sorting out the payment, the contract, the working conditions and so on.

So a good agent will be in constant contact with different production houses and will know which new projects are being prepared. They will also try to promote their actors to the production houses as well and try to keep their actors’ profiles up.

How to get an agent

But finding an agent isn’t easy. It’s often a Catch-22 situation: an agent will only take on actors with good acting credits; but to get good acting credits you need an agent.

To be frank, however, you will need a few credits on IMDb to get you started; most agents are reluctant to take on new uncredited actors unless they’re straight out of a very good drama school.

Sometimes, however, you might be lucky and get in with an agent who is looking for new actors to represent. 

The best way to get an agent is this:

  1. Put together a good showreel with examples of your work
  2. Prepare a professional CV with your experience
  3. Make sure your headshots are up to date and awesome

Then once you have that sorted:

  1. Make a list of local agents (Google is your friend here) and also ask your actor friends for advice to find the name of agents worth contacting (and those you should avoid)
  2. Go through each one and check out the actors already on their books and shortlist agents who have actors with similar experience to you (there’s no point approaching an agent who only deals with A-List actors, or kids, or ethnic minorities if you don’t match one of those categories)
  3. Go through your shortlist and remove agents who have actors who are physically very similar to you; for example, if you are male, white, tall and very skinny then if an agent already has a tall, white, skinny, male on their books they’re unlikely to take you on
  4. Go through your shortlist and remove agents who don’t work in the field you want to work in; if you want only to do film then take out agents who specialise in background work or commercials, etc
  5. Then send them a short, polite, email asking if they’re open to new talent and attaching your material

Rude and unprofessional agents will not get back to you. And perseverance is the key here; if after a couple of weeks you don’t hear back, then go to the next agent on your list and try them.

And sooner or later an agent will get back to you and set up a meeting.

And that’s where it all begins.

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