How To Get An Agent For Acting In Hollywood

If you want to be an actor in Hollywood, you will need to be located in Hollywood or be able to get here for agent meetings and auditions.  I will give you the basics on how to get an agent for both situations, whether you are an actor in Hollywood already, or if you are an actor in another city or state and thinking about pursuing a film and television acting career.

If you’re in Hollywood, you can try to get a referral from someone who good agents respect and like, such as a director or casting director.  Sometimes agents will consider a recommendation from a good acting coach.  But for most actors, you probably won’t have a referral that will matter to the agents.  So then what do you do?

How to get an agent when you have no connections is really not that hard.  You first must get a very good, professional headshot that looks like you.  Then you have to get 8 x 10″ duplicates, of course.  Then you have to put together an acting resume, which has a very specfic three-column format for newbies and somewhat working actors and a two-column format for working actors and on up.

Your acting resume should include notes about any credits you have, training, and special skills, such as athletics, dialects, accents, and languages.

After you get your actors headshot and resume, then you need to write an introductory cover letter that introduces you in the best way to the agents.  You need to focus on what would be most of interest to the agents about YOU.  For the most part, they don’t care about what you “think,” so to speak, but what are the “facts” of your qualifications.  This is where it helps to have some “sales” skills for your letter to the agents also.

When you present that facts about your acting background, you can put a “spin” on things to make them sound the best they can.  If all you’ve done is a bunch of student films, then instead of saying, “I haven’t done any professional acting yet,” instead you could say, “I’ve played Lead Roles in five independent short films.”  The truth is they are independent and they are short.  If you’ve more comfortable with calling them student films, that’s fine too:  “I’ve played Lead Roles in Five Student Films,” sounds better than “I haven’t really done anything….”

After you write a cover letter about your acting career to the agents, then you have to pick out who would be best to send to.  There used to be an excellent monthly publication called “The Agencies,” published by Michael Lloyd and Lawrence Parke of Acting World Books, but unfortunately, both gentlemen have passed away and the monthly book is now out of publication.  However, you can still get a list from SAG as a starting point.  Smart Girls Productions also keeps track of all The Agencies and even rates them A, B, C, D by their level of clout.

So you write your letter, then you pick out the best agencies to send to.  Then you send out the Cover Letter Mailing with your headshot and resume.  From that point, the Hollywood Talent Agents who are interested will call you directly.

What if you live out of town?  If you’re in the local Southern California area, then just do it the same way, but consider using the mailing address of a friend in the Los Angeles or Hollywood area so the Agents don’t immediately worry that you won’t be quickly available for auditions.

If you are not in the area at all where it is not feasible to go to on auditions or casting calls the same day, then you can do it two ways.  One is that you can tell them up front that you are not local but that you will be moving there or that you are scheduling visits for the second week of  xxx, say the second week in “February.”  Then you take it from that point and try to get your agent meetings from there.  You wouldn’t even have to have your flight booked yet if you want to put some feelers out.  But you would still say that you are taking meetings then to encourage the agents to call you for a meeting.

The other option is to not tell the talent agents in your cover letter that you are out of town, but make it appear that you are already in town.  You might have some finagling to do if they want to meet you in a couple of days and you’re down in Texas, but you could make it work.  You can either go on and book a flight.  Or you could tell them that you are out of town this week but will be back next week.

There are various strategies that you can take in your cover letter when you are trying to find an agent, but the most important thing is to go for it.  You will learn many things along the way.  And the sooner you get started, the better.

If you would like assistance with helping you get an agent, consider getting a professional cover letter mailing to agents.

And that is how to get an Agent For Acting!