Most actors realize that getting an agent for their acting career is essential for becoming a working actor, but how to land that agent is a different question all together.
Once you start to pursue and agent, you may find it’s much easier than you expected. Or you may find it’s much harder than you thought it would be. Then after you’ve been at it for a while, you may notice that your feelings and opinions have gone the opposite way completely. But what you can count on for sure, is that your feelings about agents over the years will change and it will be a roller coaster.
But here you are now, and whether it’s your first time or your tenth time setting out to get an agent, it’s good to get the wheels spinning on how you might go about it.
Here are five possible ways…
1. Send out an Email to the agencies that you would like to be with — who are also right for you.
For this, you will need to write a good solid email to introduce yourself, telling the agency what you have to offer them. You’ll also need to research the agencies to find the best ones for you given where you are in your career. Each agency has a level of talent they are open to. Some are open to take on brand new actors who have very few credits and others will require you’re making a minimum of a million dollars a year as an actor. You need to find the ones that are right for where you are… or the next step up for where you want to be. Not 10 steps up, but the next step up.
You can do this research yourself, or you can use the Smart Girls signature service the Get an Agent Marketing Package and have us do 90% of the work and guide you in the process. We will learn all about you, then write your Agent Email. Then we will select from our database the best agents for you. You will receive the list of the agencies and their emails that you can send out. You will still be in control of all of it, but we will do the hardest parts for you — writing a great letter to pitch YOU and selecting the agents for you. It is an effective powerful and fast way to get new representation when you do it correctly!
But again, you can do that yourself and this is an excellent way and probably the most common way actors try to get an agent.
But… there are some others.
2. Get a referral from another industry contact.
If you have contacts in the industry, you may be able to ask for a referral. But whatever you do, be gracious about it. Some people may be put off or become uncomfortable about this, so you have to be strategic when you ask for the referral.
Hollywood is built on relationships and connecting people together, but at the same time, you have to do it in the right way so that if someone doesn’t want to give you a referral it doesn’t become awkward!
If you are able to get a legit referral, then this is one of the best ways to get an agent. But at the same time, if you get an agent this way, you just have to be cautious that the person who takes you on may be doing it to curry favor with the VIP who referred you even though they are not really that interested. That’s why I say a “LEGIT” referral and acceptance is one of the best ways to get a legit agent or manager.
3. Do an agent showcase, take a workshop, or perform a play and invite agents to attend.
Since the great pandemic, this has changed a bit and you won’t find too many opportunities for this, but there are still some of these and there may be more and more over time. (OR NOT!)
Periodically, you may find opportunities to perform a scene in a showcase for a theatrical agent in person. A showcase is when a group of actors prepare a few scenes ahead of time, then invite talent agents and personal managers to come see them on a particular night for the purpose of showing off their work.
Even before the pandemic, these were done far less than they used to because so much work can be showcased on YouTube. The great thing about these showcases — few though they are — is that you get to meet the agent briefly and they get a sense of your personality. If that is one of your particular strengths, then that could be a great benefit, as opposed to just sending a demo reel.
Of course, another option is to perform in a play. On one hand, that is even better for agents to see because they will get much more insight into your acting abilities. The problem with this is that it is very hard to get agents to attend. Even if you get one or two to attend, that’s a very small number of agents to try to get one of them to take you on. Those two — if they show up — may already have your type. So yes, this is great to show off your talent, but it has tremendous limitations in terms of how many agents or managers you can get to show up.
4. Film a scene for your reel and send a link out to your targeted list of agents or managers.
As noted above, one of the fabulous advantages of the internet is that you can easily show your work when you have it on tape. Actors used to have to send out physical tapes — VHS or DVDs — for the agents to be able to see their work, but now you don’t have to do that. Now you can just email them a LINK, they click the link, and like magic, there you are right in front of them!
To take advantage of this, you could write a scene with the casting that fits you, shoot it, and then email the agents to look at it. You could also do this with short films. If you’ve contacted agents in the past and gotten a conversation started, this could be a good follow-up.
You could also go old school and get a postcard with your headshot and the website address (URL) of your demo reel or scene on it and send that out.
5. Participate in industry events and try to meet them out and about at networking events.
Meeting agents or managers in person is always a great way to begin a relationship and potentially find representation. The problem is you can’t just suddenly do this on a whim like you can with emailing the ones you (or Smart Girls) has researched. You actually have to wait for these events to happen and then you have to know about them… and then you have to go and do your best to meet any agent who might be there. But if you have the opportunity, you should definitely take advantage of it.
If you live in Los Angeles, try to attend live events whenever possible and network. You may not meet an agent, but you might meet some other people in the business that you want to work with. Or you may learn of other activities to get involved in. Expanding your circle in this business is always a good thing, so do build networking into your marketing strategy because when you do, you’ll be surprised how much your path starts to cross with this person you met at an event the last time you went out and that person from a couple before that.
There you have FIVE possible ways to get representation. Namely, you want to just keep your mind open and to BE ENGAGED in the business.
The reason I created the Smart Girls Get an Agent Marketing Package is that once we do the hard parts for you — writing your agent pitch letter and giving you a list of agents that are targeted for you — you can literally sit down and start emailing the agents within minutes, so I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU consider it!
(Go HERE to see how the Get an Agent Marketing Package works.)
You can literally sit down and start emailing the agents within a matter of minutes.
Getting representation can seem like a monumental task, but you just need to decide you’re going to do it, decide how you will do it, then DO IT. Any of these strategies can work, so pick your favorite and get to it. We wish you the best of luck and will be here to help you if you want to do it the smart and easy way! Seriously… good luck! Get after it!