Pursuing a career in acting

[Treeabove]

Looking for advice from people on the same boat.

DC is coming to the end if year 11 in a performing arts school studying theatre. I have a few questions:

They will get UAL level 2 Diploma in theatre: How useful will this be?

They said they need professional photos taken and an agent. How do they go about doing this?

How important are theirs GCSES grades for their future ?

How do they go about applying for jobs? They would prefer screen acting but conscious competition is fierce.

What about further education? How hard is it to get into acting schools? Which ones should they apply to? Do they need this or can they just start auditioning for jobs.

We want to be supportive but the reality of a career in acting is hard.

Noone in my family is on this field

Acting is a notoriously tough life in so many ways. What are their 6 th form plans? Most drama schools offer an undergraduate degree course now but they are very tough to get into. You need some kind of back up as it’s unlikely that your DC will be able to support themselves. Do they have any GCSEs? The well known drama schools are RADA, Guildhall, Bristol Old Vic, Drama Centre, Rose Bruford, Central etc. I say this as someone who did a postgraduate drama course after an English degree and whose daughter did a foundation year at LAMDA.

GCSEs and A-levels or equivalent qualifications will be hugely important. Even in a best-case scenario, unless your child is independently wealthy, she will need to support herself financially, potentially for years, so needs to think about that very seriously.

ETA I have a friend who is now a famous actress, but her first paying role (as in, the first acting job where she had lines that she ever got paid for) came at the age of 30. She was about 36/7 when she got her breakthrough role. Hence the importance of needing to have a way of supporting yourself. She worked as a sign-language interpreter and teacher for years.

None of that will matter in the least in terms of an acting career. However every actor needs a back up plan, or 2nd job.

What they really need to do is go to an accredited drama school at age 18 ( for which you need to have done A levels). Have a look at the list on line and what is required. In all honesty it's the only way. Of course there are actors who never went to drama school or had any training at all- it's possible. But your best chance of a career is a 3 year course.

Even going to drama school is no guarantee of success unfortunately. I speak as one who knows!

Hello, this is an incredible hard career. If there is anything else they can do and be happy I would recommend it. A close family member went to RADA masters, got the scholarship, distinction etc and is barely working. Only a very few from the cohort are able to earn enough to do it full time and even then they are not household names and earn less than me despite being in shows shown on netflix and disney.

I don't want to sound like a downer but its the reality. Those that succeed often have family money to allow them to pursue it or have contacts in the industry.

Are you based in London? Advice is to start acting in anything and everything as early as possible. I know two people who got professional gigs through being heavily involved in the local am dram scene. Sign up for extra agencies, go on facebook and look at students who need actors for their short films (99 times out of a 100 nothing will happen but I do know someone who made a proper contact from that).

You dont really need to worry about headshots yet, especially at his age. Focus on getting some out of school acting under the belt then get into something you can invite an agent to.

High school drama qualifications basically irrelevant compared to real world experience. Do acting from a drama school as an undergrad, RADA, central school of speech and drama, can he afford to live in london?

They are going to college to study a different thing; as they need a backup; they will continue studying acting part time along college.

They will have UAL level 2 diploma plus English Language, English Literature, Maths and double science

Did they take GCSEs this year (I infer so but just checking)? Which ones? Yes the core subjects will be important, not so much for acting jobs as for other employment, which they are likely to need.

I know YP who applied to or went to schools like RADA and LAMBDA as mentioned by a pp. Some are post A level or equivalent. Have they looked at that? What are they planning to do in September? Options include A levels or a more vocational qualification. I would think their school would advise. Acting is a tough gig though.

Ok, so they aren't planning on going to drama school? In that case almost zero chance of a career as an actor.

We live in London

After college they may

Just to add if they are serious about this they will likely need multiple income streams, many people work in theatres, work as crew, do social media, teach drama/ acting to kids, write, direct and even then the majority will also work in hospitality etc around that.

Where abouts are you based roughly?

Sorry x posted. What are they studying at college? Are they planning to apply to drama school after that? Why not study a relevant qual at college tho?

Rada and Lamda are the top ones. That's degree level. Or I think you can do diploma as well there.

If she's at acting school aren't the school able to help her get an agent? And headshots?

London zone 2

School won’t allow them to work until they finish

They are going to college so they can get more time to start applying for acting jobs as current school won’t allow it until they finish year 13.

Ah ok that's fair. I think that's also the case with LAMDA etc. I remember my cousin really wanting to audition for stuff while still on the course and it was really frowned upon.

The horrible and brutal truth is that I randomly from several different circles had many friends/siblings of friends etc who went to drama school and the only person I know in real life who has made it in acting is a former model who was phenomenally hot, thin, and used to travelling round the world from mid teens in that weird, acting/modelling itinerant way. It’s a horrific industry for rewarding good looks above all.

But the fact that you’re in London would really help as they can at least live at home while they give it a shot? Clearly there are lots of actors who MUST make it by other routes than ‘am ridiculously good looking’.

Obviously maybe your child is ridiculously good looking! I’m of an age where all young people are ridiculously good looking so 🤷‍♀️

What actual acting is your child doing? They will be very well advised to get involved in amateur groups (there are some excellent ones: look for award winners) for experience. Professionally very unlikely to get anything without an agent so this should be your priority.

Acting qualifications have very little impact on success as a professional actor - look at Florence Pugh, Kiera Knightley or Felicity Jones. All successful and with no acting qualifications at all. What is more important is having the right network to be able to get auditions and roles. If she goes to one of the top drama schools (LAMDA, RADA, Guildhall) she'll stand a better chance of getting a good agent. She'd need a good agent to get the right auditions. The qualifications you outline wouldn't help her get on the radar of agents, so she'd need to hustle. She can go to open casting calls, do volunteer theatre, anything to raise her profile.

Unfortunately acting isn't really a meritocracy like other professions, it's a lot of right time right place.

I'd also advise her working hard at her Plan B. At any time 90%+ of actors are out of work, it's a brutal profession.

Same, I know quite a few who went into acting. There were a few who were phenomenally talented and post graduation from top drama schools never got a single audition. Then one who ended up very successful and had nothing the others didn't have... just got one part that got her other parts and built a career from there. Right time right place.

@Treeabove You ask about getting an agent - the usual route would be the big drama schools offer showcases where students do short pieces and showcase all their skills. Agents attend these and pick who they want to represent. I'm sure agents can also be approached directly but your daughter would need a solid portfolio of work behind her to entice them for a meeting.

I went to Cambridge in the mid to late 80s and did a lot of acting when I was there. Contemporaries included Tom Hollander, Sam Mendes, Olivia Williams and Jon Cake. Some, like Cake and Williams went to Drama School afterwards others didn’t. From my cohort at Drama school no one got anywhere. I think your DC is unlikely to get jobs if they were to start auditioning now. Are they any good?

You can't 'apply' for acting jobs. An agent does this. Unless your child is at Sylvia Young or Laine Theatre Arts? Even then many go on to drama school.

There are sadly many tin pot 'drama schools' who sell the dream but the truth is you need a more conventional route to stand any chance of success. Or a very famous parent. Or an incredibly lucky break!

Thanks. What are you and your drama friends working on now?