GETTING STARTED
Can My Child Become an Actor With No Experience?
BY JENN BOYCE
FORMER HOLLYWOOD TALENT AGENT & FOUNDER OF THE HOLLYWOOD PREP
Absolutely!
Everyone has to start somewhere.
Your child doesn’t need a long resume or a bunch of professional credits to get started. That’s why we call it getting started. 😂
In fact, finding brand-new talent was a huge part of what we did as Youth Talent Agents.
We found kids all kinds of ways.
Sometimes a parent would self-submit their child to us.
Sometimes an acting coach would say, “Jenn, you have to meet this kid.”
Sometimes a Casting Director would send someone our way.
We went to showcases, acting schools and performances looking for kids who had that something that made us want to know more.
And many of those kids came to us with little or no professional experience.
Our job was to see the potential.
Then we helped take them from zero professional credits to actually working in the business.
Some worked a little.
Some worked a lot.
And some went on to have careers none of us could have possibly predicted when we first met them.
What Matters More Than Professional Experience?
What I care much more about in the beginning is your child.
Let’s go back to some of those questions we talked about earlier:
Are they outgoing?
Are they confident?
Will they talk to people they don’t know?
Can they take direction?
How do they handle feedback?
And most importantly, do they really enjoy performing?
If the answer to those questions is yes, great! Now we figure out where your child is right now and what their next best step should be.
Maybe that’s getting them into a good acting class.
Maybe it’s giving them some time to explore acting and see if they really love it.
Maybe they’re already training and they’re ready to start thinking about the next step.
Every child is different, which is why I don’t love the idea of giving every family the exact same checklist.
Do Child Actors Need Professional Credits to Get Started?
No.
You can’t get your first professional credit until someone gives you your first professional job!
Talent Agents and Casting Directors understand that kids have to start somewhere.
What matters is that when an opportunity does come along, your child is prepared enough to take advantage of it.
That’s why I’m much more interested in building the right foundation than rushing to fill up a resume.
Experience will come.
First, let’s make sure your child is ready for the experience when it does.
From My Agent Days
Every Successful Actor Started With a First Job
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Over my 30 years as a Talent Agent, I was lucky enough to be part of the early careers of actors like Jessica Biel, Shailene Woodley, Nick Robinson, Storm Reid and Addison Riecke.
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Jessica was someone we discovered at a showcase.
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I found Addison at an acting school in New Orleans.
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We represented Shailene from the time she was around seven years old.
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And Storm was only about five when I started representing her.
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These weren’t kids who walked into my office with these huge resumes and said, “Hi Jenn, look at everything I’ve already done.” 😂
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They were young actors at the beginning of their journeys.
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And that’s the part I want you to remember.
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When I was meeting a brand-new child, I wasn’t expecting them to already have a giant list of professional credits.
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How could they? They were new!
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I was looking at the kid in front of me.
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Is there something special here?
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Are they outgoing?
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Do they have personality?
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Will they talk to me?
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Can they listen and take direction?
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Do I see potential?
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Because if the answer was yes, we could build from there.
Jenn's
Take
You don’t need to somehow create a professional career for your child before they’re allowed to start having a professional career. 😂
You start where you are.
Then you get the right training, the right materials and, when they’re ready, the right people around them—and you build from there.