Launch and grow your acting career with The Actor’s Startup Guide.
Looking to pursue a dream? Coming back after a break? Just curious about acting? Get the guide that helps actors launch and build careers.
Great to have you here.
Hello! I’m Chris, an actor and the author of The Actor’s Startup Guide and other books like The Voice Over Startup Guide, Acting In Chicago, and Commercial VO Strategies. When I’m not auditioning and working, I help people start and grow professional acting careers.
Way back in 1995, I earned my first actor paycheck. Back then I was a student who loved performing, but I didn’t know how to make it a career. With no training and no industry contacts, it just didn’t seem practical.
Still, I couldn’t shake the idea of being an actor.
Over time I found a way of building an acting career like a wall…one brick at a time. Actors are hired for a lot of things, not just the stuff we normally see them doing. I dreamed of working in movies and TV shows but given my situation, that seemed out of reach.
Once I learned about all the other areas of the business in which actors worked, I realized I had found a back door into the profession. There were plenty of acting jobs I could do without moving out of my home city.
As I started my new career, I kept the big picture in mind. I thought, “Who knows? Maybe someday it’ll lead to something bigger.”
Almost 30 years later, I’m fortunate to say that it has. You can view some of my work here. I’ve guest starred on my favorite TV shows, walked red carpets in Hollywood, worked with people I never thought I’d ever meet, been the voice of dozens of global brands and made hundreds of commercials. I started teaching in 2007, wrote my first book in 2010, and impacted thousands of emerging actors through coaching and content creation.
I believe that anyone with a passion for acting and a willingness to try new things can turn their dream of being an actor into reality. Whether you’re just starting out, wanting to add a skill to your existing actor toolbox, or coming back to the business after a hiatus, I’m happy to share what I’ve learned. And you never know. Maybe some day we’ll meet on set!
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Files mentioned in the Acting In Chicago books are here.
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Articles
- Case Study: How a Print Job Turned into Six Years of Consistent Acting Work
Building a long-term acting career is easier when actors have multiple streams of income. Besides the obvious avenues to pursue like film and TV, there are several other types of acting work that offer opportunities to gain on-set experience, get footage for a reel, and earn some… Read more: Case Study: How a Print Job Turned into Six Years of Consistent Acting Work - Understanding the Dynamics of the Casting Process.
There’s a lot of information out there about how the world of the professional acting works (we go over plenty of it in The Actor’s Startup Guide), but one idea isn’t talked about very much: Ours is a business of trust. In most cases, a job starts… Read more: Understanding the Dynamics of the Casting Process. - What Does it Mean When an Actor is Put On “Check Avail”?
Readers of The Actor’s Startup Guide are going to come across industry lingo as they get their career going. One of the terms they’re hopefully going to hear a lot is, “Check avail.” What is it and what does it mean? I got a text from an… Read more: What Does it Mean When an Actor is Put On “Check Avail”?
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We empower every actor, emerging or established, with the insights and inspiration they need to grow. We believe a well-informed actor is a successful one. That’s why we focus on tools and techniques that boost your productivity and help find your path of least resistance through the profession.