Resume for Actors: The Format Casting Directors Expect

What an acting resume is

It is a casting document, not a job history. A standard resume lists employers in date order with bullets about your duties. An acting resume throws all of that out.

Credits go in blocks by medium, with no dates anywhere. Your physical type gets its own line because casting is matching a body to a role. Your teachers are named, because who trained you is a credential in this industry. And it is trimmed to 8 by 10 inches so it sits flush on the back of your headshot.

Using a normal job-resume layout is the single most common tell that someone is new. That is what this page fixes.

The acting resume checklist

Six sections. Read the last column against the resume you have open right now and count what is wrong.

One page, single column, exported clean. No signup needed to start.

Filled-in acting resume example

A complete one-page acting resume for a non-union performer with early credits, top to bottom.

Illustrative example. Jordan Avery is not a real performer and none of these credits belong to anyone. Use the structure, never the content.

Want more variations before you write yours? See the acting resume examples guide.

Blank acting resume template to copy

Copy this, swap in your own details, and you have a correct acting resume. Delete any medium block you have nothing for. Keep the headings exactly as written.

Rather have it laid out and exported for you? Start in the quick resume builder, no signup needed.

How credits are grouped (the part people get wrong)

By medium, then by strength. Never by date. Four blocks, and you only include the ones you have credits for:

• Film. Project | role type (Lead, Supporting, Featured) | director or production company. Student and independent films belong here, labelled honestly.
• Television. Project | role type (Series Regular, Guest Star, Co-Star) | network or studio. Use the industry role types, not "small part".
• Theatre. Production | the actual character name | theatre or company, and the director. Theatre is the one place the character name matters more than the role size.
• Commercial. Do not list them. Write "Conflicts available upon request." Listing brands can rule you out of competing campaigns.

Inside each block, strongest credit first. Musical theatre performers add a vocal range to the stats line and put a song list on a separate sheet, never on the resume itself. If the work is mostly playing rather than acting, the resume for musicians page covers instruments, repertoire, and gig history instead of credits.

Two rules that catch people out: an understudy credit is written as "Ensemble / u.s. [Role]" and is completely legitimate, and role type beats character name for film and TV because a casting director knows what "Supporting" means and does not know who "Marcus" was.

Build yours

1. Step 1, list every credit you have. Student films, shorts, community and university theatre, staged readings, workshops. Write them down before you judge them. Early credits are expected.
2. Step 2, sort them into the four blocks and put the strongest first in each. Add your stats line and your training with each instructor named.
3. Step 3, lay it out in the builder. It handles the single-column, one-page formatting and exports a clean PDF, in about five minutes. No signup needed.
4. Step 4, print, trim to 8 by 10, staple to the back of your headshot. For online submissions upload the headshot and resume as two separate files.

Auditioning for something that also wants a standard CV, like a teaching artist post or a theatre admin job? Run that version through the free ATS match check first, because those applications are screened by software and an acting-format page will not parse. The AI resume builder drafts that standard version from your day-job history, so you are not writing two resumes from scratch.