How to Find a Talent Agent

Video Transcript

"The bright lights of Broadway. You want to become an actor or an actress, so how do you find a talent agent? Well, I'm Joe Pauly. I've got about 20 years' experience in TV and acting. I'm going to do what I can to try and help you out. All right, the first rule of thumb is, start getting yourself together. Get a resume of what you've done so far: high school, college shows, independent films, whatever you can, that's experience on there. Get yourself a head shot. Once you've got that, start scouting around and going to some of the local theaters in your area. Talk to some of the performers and the directors and the technicians after the performance. See if you can get some insight from that. Talk to your friends, talk to you parents, talk to your friends' parents who might know somebody in the business. All right? Now, do some research. Get out a phone book, get on the Internet, try and find a list of local, reputable talent agents in your area. Once you've settled on a few, start sending out a head shot and resume to them. After a week or two, give them a call. Be persistent, but don't be annoying. If they get you in there and they want you to buy three, four, five hundred dollars' worth of head shots, walk right out. You don't want to be there. You want an agent who's going to work for you. Do some research, it's not going to be easy, because there's a lot of people out there who are going to try and take your money. Once you've found one that you're comfortable with, go in there, talk to them, see what kind of work happens with them, maybe send a thank you note after you've talked to them, and then hope for the best. All right, good luck. I'm Joe Pauly."