Every actor, if they want to take their career to the next level, will need a Talent Agent (or TA). This article examines how you can do that.

It's important to note, however, that Talent Agents will rarely, if ever, sign actors who have no or little experience. So if you are just starting out, or if you have not yet done anything apart from a few short films or small projects, you will need to wait till you have something a little more substantial on your CV before starting to look for a TA.

But for those of you who do have a few good credits under their belt, here are the basic steps to get a TA.

Get a list #

Most agents work locally — either by city or country — so the first thing to do is make a list of all the TAs local to you. A simple online search will come up with a lot of websites for local agents. 

This should include 

• Location
• Type of work they deal with (films/ads, etc)
• Type of talent they deal with (actors/extras/models/crew)
• Level of talent (A-listers, up-and-coming, new actors)

When checking local TAs, don't bother with those

• Outside your area
• Who don't do the type of work you want to specialise in (e.g. if an agency only works on ads, and you're interested in TV, then forget them)
• Who don't deal with actors (or extras, if that's your area)
• who only have actors on a different level from you (e.g. if an agency only deals with established stars and that's not you, forget them for now)

With this list, go through each one and see if you can find an agency who represents the kind of actor you are. If you are a 20-30 year old character actor and the agency only has actors over 60 or children, then they probably not worth contacting.

In other words, only look at agents who deal with actors like you. 

Visit their sites #

Have a good look around their websites to get a good feel for who they are, and what they do. Likewise, have a look at their social media presence.

• Do they post regularly about which jobs their actors have just got?
• How many people work for them? In other words, is it just a one-man-band?
• How many actors do they have on their books? And what are they like?

This last point is important. If the agency has 3 people working there and 500 actors on their website, you know you won't get any attention.

And suppose you scroll through their actors and discover that they have a myriad of actors just like you then again, this isn't a good sign as you'll be competing with other actors in the same agency for jobs.

Recommendations #

And of course while you're doing this, don't forget to talk to all of your friends and contacts in the industry to see if they have any personal recommendations (or, indeed, advice on whom to avoid).

If you have a good friend who is happy to refer you to an agent, and the agent deals with actors like you, then this is worth its weight in gold.

Shortlist the Agents #

You maybe have four or five agents now that look promising. 

Do your research and see where they stand on IMDb and what kind of work they find for their clients. And remember, throughout this process, if something doesn't feel right, then take notice of it. In an ideal world, you want to be with your agent for years and build up a good, solid, working relationship with them. You don't want to start off with feelings of doubt before you even begin!

Prepare your material #

This is important, so take your time with this. You must have:

• Good, professional, headshots
• A solid CV
• A professional showreel

Without these, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to find a good agent.

Make sure your IMDb is up-to-date. This will be almost the first thing an agent will look at before they consider taking you on. So make sure it looks good; you might also want to consider a Pro profile on IMDb to show the TA that you're serious about acting.

The next step is to prepare a killer cover email to send the agent. The importance of writing a good cover email cannot be overstated: it's the first contact between you and the agent, and it can make or break the deal. A good email will intrigue the agent and have them want to find out more; a bad email will get deleted before they even open your headshots.

Send and repeat #

The next step is to send out four or five emails and your material to your top choices. 

And then wait.

Will they reply? Maybe yes, maybe no. If they do, that's great and you can move on to schedule a face-to-face/Zoom appointment.

And if no one replies? Well, it's time to send out your email and material to the next choices on your list…

And then repeat…

It's difficult to get an agent, so perseverance is key here. But perseverance will pay off and when you find the right agent, it will take your acting career to a whole new level!