Author: Chris Agos

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 cash. A lot of actors just don’t pursue…

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 with a casting notice sent out by a…

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 actor friend the other day who had auditioned…

Hello! I’m Chris, an actor and voice over guy who earned a living as an actor for 20 years in Chicago before moving our family of four to Los Angeles in 2015. I wanted the chance to work on projects that I didn’t have access to in the Midwest. So far, aside from a pandemic,…

Ever wonder what goes into a casting decision? I do, especially when it comes to voice over (VO). As talent, we record our auditions and send them into oblivion, never to be heard from again. Where do they go and who hears them? And what determines whether or not we book the job? To get…

If you arrived at this page by reading The Actor’s Startup Guide, welcome! You booked a movie or TV show. Great, I’m happy for you. The dream is alive and well and coming true. However! You’re only halfway there. You’re hired but the second you’re wrapped, you’re fired again. Your real goal is to get…