An acting resume is its own document. It is not the chronological work history that lands office jobs. It is a one-page card, stapled behind your headshot, that a casting director scans in a few seconds: stats line, a credits table grouped by medium, training, and special skills. Below is exactly what belongs on it, what to leave off, a theatre resume example you can copy, and a template you can build free in CVOracle.
A standard resume answers "can this person do the job for years." An acting resume answers a faster question: "can I picture this person in the room, and have they done real work." That changes almost everything about the page.
There are no dense job-duty bullets, no objective statement, and no full street address. Instead you lead with physical stats and union status, then a credits table that reads at a glance. Experience is grouped by medium (theatre, film, television, commercial), not by date, because a casting director for a regional play does not care that your last gig was a national commercial.
Two details unique to this world: a headshot and physical type. The resume is printed at 8x10 inches and trimmed or stapled to the back of your headshot, so the two travel as one piece. Height, and sometimes hair and eye color, appear because they are casting-relevant in a way they never are for an accountant. You never list age or a specific birth date; you list an age range only if a representative asks for it.
An acting resume template is really a fixed set of blocks in a fixed order. Keep them in this sequence and a reader's eye lands where it expects to.
The credits table is where a casting director spends their attention, so its columns and grouping do the heavy lifting. The standard structure is three columns for theatre and four for screen.
For theatre: Production / Role / Theatre or Company (and often the Director). For film and television: Project / Role Type / Studio, Network, or Production Company. Role type matters more than the character name on screen: "Lead," "Supporting," "Co-Star," "Featured," or "Series Regular" tells the reader the size of the credit instantly. On stage, the character name carries weight, so "Lady Macbeth" earns its place.
Group credits under medium headers in the order that sells you for the role you want: a stage actor leads with Theatre, a screen actor leads with Film and Television. Within each group, lead with prestige (a known director, a respected regional house, a recognizable network), not strict chronology. If you are early-career, it is fine for Student Films or Training Productions to be their own honest header rather than dressed up as professional work.
Two rules keep you credible. Never pad the table with roles you did not play or productions that did not happen, because the theatre and film communities are small and a single inflated credit can end a relationship with a casting office. And never use "extra" or "background" as a featured credit; it signals you do not yet understand the distinction.
Here is the skeleton of a working theatre resume template in plain text. Replace the contents, keep the structure.
JORDAN AVERY / AEA / rep: The Talent Group, (212) 555-0142 / Height 5'9, Hair Brown, Eyes Hazel, Baritone.
THEATRE: Hamlet, Laertes, The Public Theater (dir. M. Okafor). Into the Woods, The Baker, Berkshire Theatre Group (dir. S. Lin). A Doll's House, Krogstad, Yale Rep (dir. P. Mendes).
FILM / TV: "Northbound," Supporting, A24 (feature). "Precinct 9," Co-Star, NBC (one-hour drama). "Last Call," Lead, NYU Grad Thesis Film.
TRAINING: MFA Acting, Yale School of Drama. On-Camera, Bob Krakower. Voice, Andrew Wade. Suzuki and Viewpoints, SITI Company workshop.
SPECIAL SKILLS: Stage combat (SAFD certified, rapier and dagger), fluent Spanish, jazz and tap, guitar, valid passport, driver's license (manual).
It is a one-page card built around a credits table grouped by medium, not a chronological job history. It leads with physical stats and union status, drops job-duty bullets and objective statements, and is sized 8x10 to sit behind your headshot. Height appears because it is casting-relevant; age and home address never do.
No. The headshot and resume are two separate pieces that travel together. Print the resume at 8x10 and staple or trim it to the back of your headshot. Putting a photo inside the resume document wastes the space the credits table needs.
Be honest and use accurate headers. List student films, training productions, community and school theatre under clear labels rather than dressing them up as professional work. Lean on a strong Training and Special Skills section. Casting directors expect early-career resumes and respect honesty far more than padding.
Yes, a short stats line with height, and often hair and eye color, belongs near the top because those details are genuinely castable. For musical theatre, add vocal range. Do not list age, a birth date, or body measurements unless your specific market or representative asks for them.
Group them by medium (Theatre, Film, Television, Commercial) and lead with the medium that sells you for the roles you want. Within each group, lead with prestige and the strongest credits, not strict chronological order. Use role type (Lead, Supporting, Co-Star) for screen and character name for stage.
Yes. CVOracle is free to build and export. Choose a clean, single-column template, enter your stats, credits, training, and special skills, and export a one-page PDF sized to pair with your headshot. You can also export DOCX or plain text if a casting submission portal asks for it.
Clean one-page designs that fit a stats line, a credits table, and training without crowding.
Full worked examples across fields, including the structure logic behind each section.
Why a single page wins, and how to fit credits and training without shrinking the type.
Readable, professional fonts that hold up when a resume is printed at 8x10 behind a headshot.
Free. Add your stats, credits, and training; export a one-page PDF sized for your headshot.
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