If you have a headshot:

• Print or staple your resume to the back of your headshot. Print it, if possible.
• If you are stapling, trim your resume (8 1/2 x 11) to fit the headshot (8 x 10).
• Your resume should include:
  • your name
    • top of page; big easy-to-read letters
  • contact information
    • address, phone number, email
  • personal statistics
    • whatever you want to include: height, weight, age, hair, eyes, size, etc.
  • experience
    • list the play, where you performed, which role you played
    • do not list ballet recitals, sports tournaments, etc.
  • education
    • list anywhere you took an acting class or workshop.
  • special skills
    • list singing and/or dance
    • musical instruments you play
    • sports you're good at
    • anything else you want to mention

If you don't use a headshot (most kids don't) you can insert scanned or digital photo(s) right on resume. Make sure the picture is only you and that your face is visible.

Your resume should be no more than one page. Don't attach anything with paper clips.

Don't lie about experience or exaggerate special skills.

Make the type a bit large, increase margins and add more space between sections to fill page if necessary.

Make the type simple and easy to read.

Carefully check for consistency, accuracy and correct spelling. Never write anything in or cross something off. Print a new resume, instead.

Click here to see a sample

Six Tips for a Perfect Headshot
by Ruth Kulerman

For the thing that will make them either throw your submission in the trash OR turn it over to read the resume. Once the envelope is opened and the handsome ultra short cover letter is read (or just glanced at), the next thing a casting office looks at is your headshot.

First, yes you may staple your cover letter to the front of your headshot, in the upper left hand corner. Be sure the staple does NOT cover important contact information on your resume.

What constitutes a good headshot? That is IMPOSSIBLE to answer. However, here are some general suggestions.

1. Like the envelope and the letter, the headshot must look professional. Always 8x10". I prefer a matte finish. NY still opts for a decent sized white border with your name printed in the bottom border. No fancy fonts here either. Even the print style you select says something about you. Neither the border nor the printed name should draw attention away from your face! The aim of a headshot is to have your face grab their attention.

2. What should the picture look like? YOU!!! Teenagers, please look teenager-ish. If they want someone who looks 22 there are thousands to choose from. If you look 15, then look 15. The more your headshot looks like you, the better the headshot.

3. Make up? Exactly the same that you yourself could apply. LOOK LIKE YOUR HEADSHOT AND HAVE YOUR HEADSHOT LOOK LIKE YOU. Unless you are stunning, please do not have your face all glamored up.

4. Just be sure the picture is about you, not about hair or boots or glamorous makeup. What does that mean? I once saw a headshot of a young woman sitting on the floor wearing boots. The shot was angled from the bottom of her boots. Those boots, consequently, were twice the size of her head. That was a picture about boots. After I first saw the boots, five minutes later I had forgotten the face, but the image of boots has lingered five years.

More and more I see headshots with distracting backgrounds--wrought iron fences with parallel lines, cityscapes, angles, circles, cars. STOP. Your headshot must have NOTHING that takes the viewer away from you. NOTHING.

5. NOTHING MUST TAKE AWAY FROM YOUR FACE. That is what people must see.

6. If you smile, get your whole face, especially the eyes, into the smile. Otherwise just a "real you" look is best. If you are self-conscious about your teeth, your smile will show it. No, do not smile unless you can commit to it completely. (PS. You CAN teach yourself to smile!)

Don't merely rely on your family to help you select the appropriate pose. Get the opinion of someone in the profession who really doesn't know you or else who doesn't have a vested interest in you. An impersonal unbiased opinion. Don't believe the photographer. He's looking at his work, not at your face.

A note-personal-about headshots. I love to laugh. Mouth wide open, tonsils showing, eyes squinty closed, head thrown back. The kind of unladylike laugh/face that embarrasses proper mothers.

My first headshot session captured one of those laughs. Against EVERYONE'S ADVICE, I had "the laugh" made up into a postcard. That "forbidden" pose, the laughing postcard, landed on a casting desk (because I had mailed it). And "the laugh" led directly to my first agent. That's a pose against every rule of headshots. But I just knew it totally captured a major side of me.

My advice: Go and do thou likewise. Capture you.

The hardest advice of all: If a headshot is not working (that is, if you are not getting called in for ANYTHING) heave it out and get another set of shots. That is why it is so terribly important NOT to pay a fortune for headshots. You do not have to use the biggest name photographer. Your headshot is not about the photographer. It is about your face. And if one picture isn't working, move ON TO THE NEXT.

SUMMARY: HOW TO GET ATTENTION

Present the best you in your envelope's appearance.

Present the best you in your cover letter's appearance and content.

Present YOU in your headshot