Category: Advice For Actors

  • Parents and Child Actors: A New Book Just for You

    Parents and Child Actors: A New Book Just for You

    Acting In Chicago has been helping actors launch and grow careers since 2010. Now, kids and parents have their own book! I’m a Dad with a son in the business. Parents often ask me how they can get their children started as professional actors, so I wrote a book just for them. It’s called Acting […]

  • Actors Should Tell A Story With Their ActorsAccess.com Profile

    Actors Should Tell A Story With Their ActorsAccess.com Profile

    Your Actor’s Access profile should tell a story. That’s the takeaway from a conversation I had with Blair Hickey, actor and founder of the website CastingAbout.com, which tracks the movements of casting directors and associates through their various projects. The site now operates as a division of Breakdown Services, Inc., which of course we all […]

  • The Self-Tape Situation And How To Improve It

    The Self-Tape Situation And How To Improve It

    Maybe you’ve been following the drama playing out on the West Coast between actors and casting directors. If not, I’ll briefly catch you up. In early March, a few actors sparked a discussion about the industry’s embrace of self-taped auditions by venting their frustrations with them on Twitter. The resulting discourse has opened the floodgates, […]

  • Lessons from the Grey’s Anatomy Writers Room

    Lessons from the Grey’s Anatomy Writers Room

    In chapter 7 of the latest edition of the Acting In Chicago book, there’s this quote. It’s really the only moment in the book that comes off like a parent talking to a petulant high schooler. Here it is: “…if you’re tempted to make something up, don’t. It’ll come back to bite you in the […]

  • What Actors Can Expect On Set During Covid

    What Actors Can Expect On Set During Covid

    TV/film production is slowly trying to get back to a normal schedule. For actors returning to SAG-AFTRA productions, life on set is going to look very different than it did before Covid. There are a lot of virus-related changes. Masks, testing, face shields, wristbands, and signage are everywhere on set. The industry is employing a […]

  • Moving to Los Angeles for Acting? Start Here.

    Moving to Los Angeles for Acting? Start Here.

    My name is Chris, I’m an actor and voice over guy who earned a living as an actor for 20 years in Chicago before moving to Los Angeles in 2015. Before making the jump, I wrote a book about building a sustainable career as a Midwest-based actor. I moved because I wanted the chance to […]