NotaPushyMum.Com

Hi,
not been on here for years but used the site a lot when both my children were with Young'uns agency doing many auditions and a fair amount of work but school kicked in as they both got scholarships at top academic schools. Daughter is now 18, has left school and starting once more in the world of stage and screen..... so please where the hell does she begin with agents, any suggestions? Tamara doesn't look young for her age but could still play just under sixteen, we live in Bristol but she can have a base for as long as she wants in London with her cousin. PLEASE HELP

Marina

I recommend Actors' Yearbook as a start. It's a bit less daunting than Contacts. It does list a lot of agents and it also has helpful hints on how and when to approach them and lists individual agents' preferences for how they like submissions.

The difficulty your dd faces - and I'm sure she's well aware of it - is that she is in competition with hundreds and hundreds of drama school graduates who have had the advantages of showcases and final year productions to try to interest agents (as well as the training, of course, which for some agents will be of very considerable interest/importance).



All the good adult agencies will want to see her in something before taking her on. Occasionally new agents do audition adults - but most established agents take people on after seeing them on stage or on screen or from watching a showreel, or sometimes after recommendation from someone they trust in the industry.

She can still approach agents though - if her CV and photo are sufficiently interesting they may invite her in for a chat. They might take her on on a trial basis, or they might say "let us know when you are in something we can come and see".

If she is not going on to further training then she could concentrate on getting a showreel together. That can be a useful first step on the road to representation. Agents will almost always want their clients to be in Spotlight - and that is another hurdle for actors who have not trained on an accredited course. It is possible that Spotlight will consider her professional credits as a child performer as sufficient evidence of professional work but you would probably have check that out with them.
https://www.spotlight.com/join/eligibility.asp?book=2

It is also possible to get work without an agent. Spotlight entry will make that a little easier too - though she could start by looking for jobs on some of the other casting sites like CCP and Starnow and Mandy etc.

Thank you,

I was in acting myself from the age of sixteen to my early thirties but without any great success, just enough to survive but things were very different then though I was always in spotlight, both my children were always in spotlight as children so hopefully that will count for something.

Tamara did do the Edinburgh festival last year and though I doubt it counts for anything has a double Btec the highest marks in drama.

Anymore comments are most welcome

Marina x

I think that if she can get Spotlight entry based on past professional work, then that would be a very big help to her in her search for representation. Also, as an adult actor, even if unrepresented, you can now see (and apply for) quite a number of jobs directly. That's a relatively recent change on Spotlight. It tends to be mostly commercials, shorts and some student films - but it's certainly useful if she doesn't have an agent. (Most mainstream TV, Film and theatre goes only to agents via Spotlight - and a lot of it only goes to a select list of top agents).

If she is eligible for Equity then there is also the Equity Job Information Service.

My dd was also with Young uns while she was at the fulltime SY school, she stayed with the agency for a year after she left at 16, then we found a brilliant local agency where she has had some amazing castings...she has even bagged a few of them!!
It is not always the big agencies that do well, and it may be worth looking at some smaller more local ones

Good luck