How do you get an agent for acting – Here Are 4 ways
Aaron Marcus breaks down four ways to find agents: check the ATA directory, ask local theaters for recommendations, network on film and TV sets, or contact advertising agencies. Cold calls don't work. Instead, research casting directors, follow them on social media, engage with their posts, then ask if you can send headshots.
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Are you feeling helpless because you can't find an acting agent? Well, watch this video. I'm going to share with you 4 incredibly easy and great ways of finding agents both locally and in distant markets. And if you watch this until the end, I'm also going to share with you a great way to get noticed by casting directors. Okay, let's get started. Hi, I'm Aaron Marcus, and welcome to the Acting and Modeling Quick Tip channel and also the Actor Career Center. In this channel. Hey, what I do is I try to help fellow actors have more success and also help people who are thinking about breaking into the acting and modeling industry learn how to do it in the best way possible. If you haven't done this yet, please subscribe, click the notification bell so that way you always know when I upload a new video, which I try to do every Tuesday depending on my schedule. And if you like the video, Please give it a thumbs up and share the link with fellow actors just so they can benefit from this information as well. Okay, so let's say you're looking, you're in search of a really great agent, or maybe you have an agent you like but you want to find one in a distant market. Number 1, a great way to find agents, you can go and I'll list, I'll list the, the web the website below, but you can go to ATA. It's an association for agents, and you will find agents across the country. These are really good agents. But let me just tell you, there are millions of great agents who, for, you know, many reasons, have chosen not to be a part of this association. So if there is an agent that you know that you're thinking of, but they're not part of ATA, it doesn't mean they're not great. They just chose not to be a part of it. So what you can do is just go state by state and you can find many, many different agents there. Number 2, if there is any local theater in your area, and this is a great way of finding agents, go— well, first you can just try calling, calling the theater and ask, can they recommend any local agencies to you? And, you know, you can probably get some information that way. Or attend a performance and after the show walk over to one of the actors or a couple of the actors and say, hey, I'm trying to find some agents in the area. Are there any that you would recommend? And if you start hearing the same names of certain agencies over and over again, you know, these are agencies that you want to try to connect with. Number 3, if there is any extra work for you to work on, whether it's a TV commercial, whether it's a feature film, whether it's a television show, go and network. Talk to some of the other extras there and ask the same question, and you're always going to be able to find names of legitimate agents working in your area. Number 4, this takes a little bit more detective work, but it's a really good way to find agents. Contact some local advertising agencies. The people that you want to try to connect with are the art and/or creative directors. They're the ones who typically would have most contact with agents locally. They're the ones who they will contact if they need an actor for a TV commercial or voiceover work or even commercial modeling jobs. And you can ask them the exact same question. Those are 4 great ways of trying to find some local agents. Now, if you want to get noticed by casting directors, look, I can tell you, you don't want to start calling people. I'm telling you, agents— both agents and casting directors— they don't want phone calls from us. And it's not because they're mean, it's not because they don't like actors. They're busy, you know, they're doing a lot of things. And if they were getting 20 or 30 phone calls every day— hey, I'd like to send you some information. It's taking them away from doing the work that they need to do. So look, some people like to email casting directors, but if you don't know them, chances are they're not going to open it. They certainly are not going to open— and nobody does this— they're not going to open an email with an attachment, you know, like your headshot, your resume, Unless they know you, because otherwise everybody's afraid of catching a virus on their computer. So I don't think that emailing people is generally the best way to do this for unknown people. Certainly people you know, you've worked with, you can send them updates and things like that. But if you try social media, that could be a really, really good way to connect and have casting directors Know who you are. Now, here are a couple of rules that you want to follow. Number 1, do some research. Find the casting directors in your area. What you want to do is find out what kind of projects they work on. You know, is it film? Is it television? Is it commercial? All, all the above? And then once you get some more information and you find out these are people who are doing castings for projects that you are interested in, then see if they have a social media presence. Maybe they're on Instagram, maybe they're on Twitter. And if so, go there and follow them. Start— and look, and here's a mistake that a lot of people make. Think about it this way. If you are just meeting someone at a party for the very first time and they are doing something that you are interested in doing, you're not going to bombard them Immediately. It's going to turn them off. You know, if you meet somebody that you want to date, you're not going to start talking about marriage, you know, the first time you meet with them. So take things slowly. You know, follow what they are tweeting, follow what they're talking about on Instagram, and then what you can do is comment on it. You can let them know that— well, first of all, you've got to follow them, and then let them know if they talked about, I don't know, an audition strategy. Then maybe you can send them a note and make it specific and say to them, hey, I really loved what you had to say about auditioning. You know, maybe it's taking the moment before you start the audition, or whatever they talked about, and I'm going to try this out at my next audition. Thank you so much for the information. I really appreciate it. It was very helpful. And that's a great way to get started. You know, a lot of times people like to hear that what they have to say is helpful, and they might respond to you, which would be really cool. And then if you get a chance to actually try it, then maybe in 2 or 3 weeks or so, follow it up and send them another note. Either, you know, you can, you know, send something to their Twitter account or their Instagram account. Hey, just want to let you know, you know, I followed your advice. I tried this technique. I got a booking from it, or I got a callback from it. It was so helpful. Thank you very much. And then see what kind of response you get from them, if you get a response. But that That is a great way to connect yourself with a casting director, or hey, it could be an agent as well if, you know, if they are giving out information about the industry. And that is a really good way of not pushing yourself, not jumping on them, not immediately saying, hey, I'd love to talk with you about representation, or hey, I want you to keep me in mind for future projects. And then, you know, you— if you get a response, then maybe you could say, I just wanted to find out, could I send you a headshot and resume and, uh, or, or reel, you know, and I'll send it through WeTransfer or whatever company you want to use, uh, to get it to them. Those would be great ways. Or if you want, you can just send a hard copy of your headshot, resume, and a short cover letter to the casting director after you've corresponded a couple of times And make sure in your cover letter, I'm just following up. Your information was so helpful to me. I just wanted to send you my headshot and resume, and hopefully I'll get a chance to audition with you in the near future. If you do have an agent, you can always say, and by the way, you can contact me through my agent. Or if you don't have an agent, they can contact you directly through your contact information. which needs to be in that cover letter. So anyhow, those are great ways of trying to get casting directors to know you. Because you know what's really funny? A lot of times people say, yeah, in this industry it's all about who you know. I have a very different philosophy. It's about who knows you. That is what's really important. So anyhow, I wanted to share those things with you. I hope they are helpful to you. Let me know. Hey, I always like to hear Uh, when the information is helpful or, you know, or not, that would be okay as well. Um, but once again, if you haven't done this, don't forget, subscribe, click the notification bell so you always know when a new video is uploaded and please, um, share the link with fellow actors. That, that's the whole point of having this channel of actors helping each other. We're not competing with each other. Let's build a community of people who are doing whatever we can to help each other. To me, it just seems like a nice way to— for me to live my life and also run my business. I am Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.
