Before becoming the household name (and EGOT!) she is today, Viola Davis was just an aspiring actor with a few school plays under her belt. Although her beginner acting résumé may have been less than auspicious, Davis kept building it by attending a state school theater program, making her stage debut, and enrolling at Juilliard, before finally moving on to Broadway and onscreen work. If you’d like to be the next Annalise Keating or General Nanisca, the first step is creating a killer résumé to help you land your breakthrough role.
Deciding what to include on your résumé and what to leave out can be tricky, even for seasoned performers with years of professional experience. No credits to your name? Here’s what to highlight on an acting résumé for beginners:
Transferable experiences: Note public performances, even those that wouldn’t be considered acting (like debate competitions and Toastmasters speeches), nonprofessional acting experience (like school plays, social media skits, student films, or party princess performances), and volunteer work that demonstrates your ability to interact with audiences (such as a tour guide, nursing home recreational facilitator, or children’s soccer coach).
- Examples: “Performed beat poetry at multiple open mic nights (audience of 50+),” “Wrote and performed in TikTok comedy sketch with 100K+ impressions,” “Volunteer reader at drag queen story hour, performed biweekly for one year”
Education and training: If you took Stage Acting 101 in college, trained with a notable performer, or earned a certificate from an online acting class, emphasize it.
- Examples: “Pursuing BFA in Musical Theater at UCLA, expected graduation 2026,” “Completed Improv 1–4 courses under the tutelage of Tina Fey at The Second City”
Special skills: Do your clowning skills make you a hit at parties? Can you mimic accents like Meryl Streep? Note any unique skills that could make you stand out in performances, such as accents; languages; stage combat; musical instruments; singing; dancing; and unusual athletic abilities like martial arts, juggling, tumbling, or fencing.
- Examples: “Fluent in Kurdish; proficient in synchronized swimming,” “Adept at stage combat; professionally trained ballroom dancer”
Club memberships: If you are an active member in community theater associations, performing arts leagues, drama clubs, or content creator groups, your enthusiasm and willingness to become involved can help you stand out.
- Examples: “Member of local comedy troupe, performed in monthly improv shows for two years,” “Vice president of true crime podcasters association”
How to Make an Acting RésuméAn acting résumé for beginners will follow the same basic structure as other one-sheets, as in this in-depth guide to formatting an acting résumé. However, you likely don’t have an agent, manager, or robust list of credits, so here’s an adapted beginner acting résumé template:
NAME & CONTACT INFO
Name
Phone
Email
General location
RELEVANT EXPERIENCE
Student film title | Role
Social media skit | Role
Community theater play title | Role
Volunteer work company | Position
EDUCATION & TRAINING
Type of class | Instructor | Studio
Degree | Instructor | School
PERSONAL STATS
Height
Weight
Hair color
Eye color
MISCELLANEOUS
Memberships
Special skills and levels
Passport status
Awards and nominations
Frame your résumé to highlight your best self. “You must focus on your strengths and not your weaknesses,” actor and acting coach David Patrick Green told Backstage. “If you really believe you have something to offer the world of professional acting, it’s up to you to let that world know. There is never-ending demand for new and talented actors, so it’s just a question of making sure the right people become aware of you…. The key to overcoming weakness is showing strength. A résumé is neither a strength nor a weakness—it just is. It says what you have done, not what you can do. What you can do requires describing and demonstrating. So it’s important to learn how to describe who you are and what you can do to the people who can put your skills to use.”
Harness the power of social capital. At the end of the day, a résumé is just a document; it’s your unique personality and abilities that really make an impression with industry movers and shakers. “Start thinking about how you can meet decision makers or those who work with them,” Green advised. “Whether it’s at a party, temping in their offices, or somewhere else, connect with the people you can benefit from the most and it won’t be long before that résumé goes from tabula rasa to cornucopia.”
Be creative. “If your résumé doesn’t make it clear that you have talent, you need to show or tell them in another way,” Green said. “The only limit is your own creativity. If you show as much creativity in how you help the industry find you as you do in your acting, your résumé will become an ‘in spite of’ instead of a ‘because of.’”