Aaron Marcus, an actor with nearly 30 years of experience, explains how to format an acting resume. Put your headshot in the upper-right corner of the back so casting directors see your face while reading. Skip your age or age range entirely, unless you're a minor, since a good headshot already shows what you look like.
Hi, my name is Aaron Marcus, and I've been a full-time actor for nearly 3 decades. And I'm going to be sharing with you a series of quick tips about resumes and how you can create really strong, powerful, eye-catching resumes. So this is the second tip. This has to do with something that I think is a great idea. Very few people do, but you might want to seriously consider doing it. So typically you have a headshot and then you flip it over and you've got the resume on the back. And it has all of the standard information. It has your name, contact information, your work, education, special skills, things like that. Well, here's something you might not have considered, but you should. I decided To actually, and you can see it here, have my headshot on the back of my resume. It's in the upper right-hand corner, and it's not the same headshot that I have on the front, although if you only have one headshot, I think it's fine to, to repeat it. And the reason why I like having a headshot in the upper right-hand corner is because that way they can continue to see you As they're reading your resume. And, you know, that way they don't have to flip back and forth and they can constantly see what you look like. And I think it's a nice way to keep your face in their mind because it's a really quick glance that people have when they're looking at the resume. One other tip that I wanted to give you about the resume is I never put age range or age. Some people do that. My feeling is unless you are a minor and it's really important that people know how old you are for a variety of reasons— part of it is just how long you can work, whether they have to hire tutors, you know, things like that. The reason why I don't like to put an age range or any kind of age information is because I want my headshot to sell me. for the right age. And if my headshot isn't telling the agent, casting director, producer, writer, whoever it is who's looking at the resume, if my headshot isn't telling them what age range is right for me, then my headshot's not very good. So completely leave that out. There's no reason for you to put your age in there. And once again, there are a couple exceptions to the rule, but for most adults, you would never want to put your age. I'm Aaron Marcus. If you have any thoughts, questions about your resume, if you've created it in a certain way, love to hear your ideas. You can place your information on my Facebook page, facebook.com/howtomodel. You can also get to me through howtomodel.com. I offer great acting information there. There are even 3 videos that you can get free when you go to the website. And I look forward to talking with you again really soon about resumes. Bye.
