How to Become an Actor with No Experience

One of the most common questions I receive every week is how to become an actor without experience. Many aspiring actors who are just starting a career in the show business are confused about how to get an acting job when you have nothing on your acting resume.

I can see how this 22-catch situation can confuse many people, especially those who have just left drama school or jumped into the industry without formal training. I've been there before, and so have others. Every. Single. Actor.

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar

There are many ways to become an actor without experience, when and where to start your acting career. Many of these questions have been partially answered in the Acting for Beginners Guide, and several articles on this site.

7 Tips on How to Become an Actor with No Experience

After you decide to pursue a career in acting, you need a good plan of action about how to become an actor without experience. As we talked about earlier in how to start an acting career column, planning is the key. Your main goal is to expand your acting resume with skills, experience and training.

There are many things that can be focused on developing beginners to advance their careers, and they are all interrelated. Some of them involve looking for work, and others are only free for your acting career which will eventually make you find and order more auditions.

1. Read and learn
First of all, you must familiarize yourself with this industry. Know the ins and outs of this business, how it works, and what people are involved in. Reading books about acting, marketing, talent agencies and so on will give you confidence and understanding where you want to be, and how you will get there.


Depending on where you started your acting career, your approach to effectively ordering acting jobs might be a little different. Once you know the ins and outs of this business, you will find it much easier to develop your own specific action plan rather than relying on general advice from websites like this and many others.


Not only that, but a lot of reading will be useful for any actor's expertise. Read a book on acting techniques to understand the theory behind honest acting. Don't forget to read the most important drama too. However, don't just rely on books, because you can't learn acting only from that. You have to take acting classes or even register for drama school.


When you try to find the most efficient way to become an actor without experience, independent education is very valuable. And besides learning about crafts and business, a lot of reading will increase your creativity (the best creativity book) and expand your imagination (the best book for imagination).


2. Don't move immediately
Now, you might know that certain cities in the world have a much larger theater or film and television industry. If you start an acting career in one of those cities, then it's good for you - you will have many opportunities since traveling.

However, if you are not in a big city like London, Los Angeles or New York City, then don't worry about that. As aspiring actors who are just starting out, your city will probably have lots of really HOT, small production to get that experience because it's easier to order.

Big cities are not only very competitive, but also very expensive. So when you are looking for ways to become actors without experience when you live in a smaller city, focus on saving money, learning about business and exploring local opportunities.

Don't move to a big city as soon as you decide you want to become an actor. You need to check whether this is just an impulsive decision, or you really enjoy the craft and will be able to do this for a long time. Try to bite as much as possible in a less competitive market in your small town and start building your acting resume.

3. Audition and train locally
Continuing my point from above, your goal must be to move slowly, not in a hurry to do anything. Remember the famous phrase - acting is a marathon, not a spring. This can't be more true. Anyone who rushes to this profession will burn very quickly. This is not a smart way to approach this business.

Acting careers like marathons. That's not a sprint.

Unless you live in cities like Manningtree, England where the population is 700 people, or Whittier, Alaska with 217 people, chances are your city will have several opportunities for you to act. If you want to know how to become an actor without experience, then this is how you can do it quickly - a less competitive market.

So what opportunities can you explore? Anything, really; anything that gives you the opportunity to act. At this point, you have to start acting as much as you can, wherever you get the chance. It can be community theater, drama clubs, amateur acting workshops, student films and so on.

If you are lucky (or unlucky) enough to live in a bigger city, there will be more things going on, but it will be more competitive too. However, actively looking for work, auditions and doing whatever you can to get up and act. As soon as you are able to buy several acting classes or local workshops, try it too.

The goal is to start making resumes in any way possible. Put whatever you can on it. Jump to whatever project you can. Be proactive!

4. Do your special skills
Being a good actor must always be your top priority. But that doesn't mean you can't learn any "accessory" skills that will help you order more acting work. Many actors really ignore this part, and therefore exclude themselves from running for easy shows that they can get if they have certain skills.

Always helping to be able to do something the director can use in production. If you can already play a musical instrument and do more unique things, like riding roller skates - perfect! Sharpen the skill, put it on a resume and see how this can help you get that acting experience.

But don't stop there. Learn new things and spend enough time really mastering the technique to an adequate level where you can at least pretend to look like a professional, rather than just "knowing how it's done."

What should you learn? Anything, really. Juggling, accents, languages, musical instruments, sports, martial arts, magic and others. Try some unusual things and put them on your resume, especially if you have already done it.

Special skills are not the focal point of your resume (which is why they are usually at the bottom), but who knows, one day one of those skills can win you an important role in big production.

5. Start working on your marketing
When you don't have acting experience and you follow the advice above, chances are you won't spend too much time with day-to-day filming projects. Therefore, you might have a little extra time in your hands that you can use wisely to enhance your acting career.

My advice is to start working on your marketing and own brand. This won't help you much now, but if you start early, once you have acting experience, you will be in front of many other actors who are only pursuing the marketing goals of their actors.

So what can you do to start building brands around you? There are a number of things, and everything is very easy to do and learn, especially because everything is based online. This is what you should focus on:

• Create your own personal acting website (or you can pay someone to do it for you, but it's not worth it).
• Create social media profiles: Facebook, Twitter, Instragram, and anything else out there.
• Be active on your website and with your social media. Share things and communicate with others.
• Make an online connection with actors, directors, producers, screenwriters and other industry people.
• Besides doing all of this online, you can also start networking a little. Even if you live in a small town with very little film or theater action, there may be aspiring actors, directors, producers out there doing the same thing. Find them, connect with them and maybe start working on something together.

If you try hard, you can also find professionals in fields that are already working. Getting to know these people is more difficult, especially when you're still trying to find ways to become actors without experience, but if you can get their attention, try to use that contact, or save them for later.

In our free eBook, we discuss network topics and how many industry people really enjoy talking about business and giving advice. Use it to your advantage.

6. Get used to rejection
Refusal is part of this business. Mostly, actually. Many novice artists don't expect this change of events once they decide they want to be actors, singers, dancers, or other types of players in this highly competitive market. Unfortunately, that is the reality of show business - everyone is rejected.

Unlike others, you must accept that Rejection (in capital letters "R") is completely normal. It's not personal and there's no reason you should remember it. That does not always mean that you are a bad actor or that you have done something wrong.

Imagine you are doing a project. You only have one section, and 100 actors audition for that part. 50 of them are good. Can you rent all 50? No you can't. You have to choose one, and that is a difficult decision to make as a director. Nobody wants you to fail, but because of the nature of this business, you will get many bets rejected.

“For every successful actor or actress, there are countless numbers who don’t make it. The name of the game is rejection. You go to an audition and you’re told you’re too tall or you’re too Irish or your nose is not quite right. You’re rejected for your education, you’re rejected for this or that and it’s really tough.” – Liam Neeson

What do I want to say? The point is that you must intentionally put yourself in a position that will be rejected as soon as possible. Get comfortable with rejection. Trust me, if there is one "ability" that must be possessed by an actor, this is this. This is not easy, but it will save a lot of internal battles and make you on the right path.

“Actors search for rejection. If they don’t get it they reject themselves.” – Charlie Chaplin

At this point, don't go there to win. Go there to FAIL. Do your best, experiment, play and enjoy the process. As an actor, you cannot try to avoid failure, forever.

7. Finally, be patient and consistent
To be honest, the six points above are enough for you to get yourself on the path of becoming an actor without experience, and change that situation as soon as possible. If you follow my advice above, you will excel in one year. Most actors stopped pursuing this career at that time.

If you truly dedicate yourself to finding all kinds of experiences, marketing yourself, building your site and network, and feeling comfortable with rejection, this might take you a year or two. Yes, this has been a long time, but remember that being an actor is not a sprint; it's a marathon. Enjoy the process, and see far into the future.

The important part is to always remember that you eventually or will soon have a strong understanding of how the show business works, what the acting industry is all about, and that you really mean that you like to do this. You will feel like building a foundation, developing habits related to acting, and reading for big steps.

So be patient. This is very important, because you will not - and I repeat, you will NOT - see any results at the beginning. Learning how to become an actor without experience is not impossible, but it takes effort. This will also be a lot of investment in terms of time, hard work, and even money without a temporary reward.

But stick with it, and over time, you will see how gradually the results of the work you did before will start trickling down, and you will go "ooooh, I understand now!"

This is all you need to know about how to become an actor without experience:

• Read a lot and learn
• Sharpen your skills and learn to love business
• Look for any opportunities locally
• Don't rush to anything and take it slowly
• Market yourself and the network
• Continue to improve yourself as a person and actor
• Stay patient, and stay consistent.

If you have observations or other questions about how to become actors without experience, share them in the comments below and let's see what else we can discuss.

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