How to become an actor in the UK and the US: what the rules actually say

Every guide to becoming an actor starts with a first step. No two name the same one. Some start with training, others with the showreel, others with the union, and others still with the advice to stop waiting for anyone's permission.

The disagreement is not cosmetic. It reflects a profession whose entry points are published in several places, by bodies that do not coordinate with each other. In France, the question is framed in declared hours and the French intermittent du spectacle status. In the UK and the US, it is framed differently, and the criteria are written down. We read them.

Do you need drama school to become an actor?

No, say the guides. Asked whether every actor goes to drama school, Backstage answers with "a resounding no", backed by examples of actors with no formal training.1 StageMilk writes that drama school can help, for the network and the path it offers, but that it is only one option among others.2

The official routes are built differently. Spotlight, the directory British casting directors use, publishes a training route to membership: at least one year of full-time professional training, at a level equivalent to Level 5 of the UK qualifications framework, or two years part-time. It also publishes what does not count, and the list is precise: GCSEs, A levels, BTECs, LAMDA exams, joint degrees combining literature and drama, and foundation years that are too short.3

So the guides say training is optional, while one of the three doors into the main British casting directory is training and nothing else. Both statements are accurate. They describe different things, and reading them side by side is something a beginner almost never gets the chance to do.

Getting into the schools, meanwhile, is narrow. For its BA in Acting, RADA describes a four-stage audition: a preliminary self-tape with an introduction and two monologues, seen by two panel members; a recall self-tape with a new monologue and a song, seen by three; a three-hour in-person workshop; then a workshop day with a short one-to-one interview. Every eligible applicant who applies before the deadline gets an audition, for a non-refundable £39 fee, waived for applicants eligible for its RADA Connect access programme.4

Leaving school is far less mapped out than getting in. In France too, what happens to actors in the six months after drama school is poorly documented.

How does an actor get seen by casting directors?

Through a casting directory or platform, and each one publishes its conditions. Spotlight offers three routes to membership. Experience: at least one role under a union contract or two paid professional engagements, with background work, stunts, amateur or unpaid work and student productions not counting. Training, described above. And a recommendation from a listed agent or from a member of a casting directors' association. Membership costs £210 a year.3

In the US, the entry ticket is lower and the tiers are public. Actors Access keeps a free membership, with a résumé, two photos and a short introduction video, and sells an upgraded tier at $68 a year or $9.99 a month.5

What do the unions require to join?

Things that can be counted. SAG-AFTRA, the American union for film and television actors, becomes open after one day of employment in a speaking role, or after three days of background work under one of its collective bargaining agreements.6 The national initiation fee is $3,121, on top of base annual dues of $246.14 and 1.575% of earnings.7

Equity, in the UK, admits full members on one of three proofs: £750 earned through professional work, an engagement under an Equity contract, or membership of a union affiliated to the International Federation of Actors, SAG-AFTRA included. Subscriptions follow earnings from the profession, starting at £198 a year below £40,000, with a reduced rate for recent graduates and a student membership.8 The union had 48,606 members at the end of 2024, dancers, stage managers and other stage professions included.9

None of these criteria assesses the work. They count contracts, days and earnings, which is reasonable for a union and says little about anything else.

How much can an agent take?

In the US, the cap is published by the union. On film, television and streaming work, a SAG-AFTRA franchised agent cannot take more than 10%, and the rule closes the obvious loophole: the agent cannot collect any other fee or additional commission, from either the actor or the employer.10

In the UK, no percentage is set by any statute. What the law sets is a prohibition: since 1973, an agency cannot charge an actor for finding them work, and its commission can only be taken from the fees of engagements it secured. The one exception is a listing in a directory or on a promotional website, which for actors comes with a thirty-day cooling-off period and a refund if the publication does not appear within sixty days.11 The British agents' association only requires commission rates to be written down and any change to be agreed in writing.12

The 10 to 15% ranges that circulate on blogs have no institutional source. A percentage repeated across a dozen articles is still a percentage without a source. In France, the cap is 10%, written into the French Labour Code.

What do the numbers say about the profession in the US?

They describe a small profession, with no growth expected. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 67,500 acting jobs in 2025, a median hourly wage of $29.05 in May 2025, flat employment projected between 2025 and 2035, and about 6,300 openings each year. 23% of actors are self-employed.13

Union earnings call for more caution, because the published figures do not describe the same population. Forbes reported in 2023 a median actor salary of $46,960 for 2021, and relayed actress Tavi Gevinson's claim that about 12% of SAG-AFTRA members reach the threshold of roughly $26,000 that qualifies for the union's health coverage.14 These are press figures, not official statistics.

Read together, these numbers say what the guides leave out. The profession is not growing, most of the people in it earn a living from it intermittently, and the doors into it are administrative rather than artistic.

What has changed in auditions since 2021?

The audition itself. In the UK, the Casting Directors' Guild, Equity and the agents' associations signed in August 2021 a code of best practice for self-tapes in scripted drama: at least four days to prepare up to six pages, three days for three pages or fewer, two roles at most per request, two scenes per role, two takes per scene. The text states that actors should not have to pay for a reader.15

In the US, the agreement that ended the SAG-AFTRA strike introduced, at the end of 2023, the first union rules on self-tapes. Sides must arrive at least 48 hours ahead, 72 for minors. Eight pages at most for a first audition, twelve for a callback. Memorization cannot be required, nor any particular software or equipment.16 The union's contracts director, Ray Rodriguez, summed it up in Backstage: two pages of rules where there had been, more or less, a blank page.17 The contract ratified in June 2026 also bans charging an actor to submit their headshot or reel in response to a casting notice.18

This part of getting into the profession stayed unwritten for years, and the rules arrived after the self-tape had already become the default first round. What happens inside one, casting directors describe more precisely than the unions do.

Why don't the guides agree on the first step?

Because the first step depends on what you already have. The published criteria cover three things: credits, training, a recommendation. People with training go through school; people with engagements go through experience; people with neither look for an agent's recommendation. Each guide describes the door its author walked through.

What none of these doors measures is the work done before and between them: training alone, with no rehearsal room and no one watching, so you are ready the day one of them opens.

For the French case, training, intermittent status and income: becoming a professional actor, what the word actually covers.

Sources

• How to Become an Actor Without Acting School, Backstage
• Why You Don't Need to Go to Drama School, Frazer Shepherdson, StageMilk, July 2023
• Spotlight Joining and Membership Requirements and Performers Membership, Spotlight
• BA (Hons) in Acting admissions procedure for entry 2026 and Admissions Policy 2026-27, RADA
• Actors Access Memberships, Breakdown Services
• What are the eligibility requirements for SAG-AFTRA membership?, SAG-AFTRA, November 2023
• How much is the Initiation Fee?, SAG-AFTRA, April 2026
• Who can join Equity? and Join Equity, Equity
• Equity, annual return AR21 2024, Certification Officer, 2025
• Agency Commission Limitations: Los Angeles Members, SAG-AFTRA
• Employment Agencies Act 1973, section 6, and Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003, regulation 26, legislation.gov.uk
• Approved Code of Practice for Agents Representing Artists, Personal Managers' Association, January 2026
• Occupational Outlook Handbook: Actors, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, September 2026
• Median Income For Actors Is $46,960, Arianna Johnson, Forbes, July 2023
• Code of Best Practice for Self-Tape & Zoom Auditions for Scripted Drama, Casting Directors' Guild, CPMA, Equity and PMA, August 2021
• Theatrical Contract Changes (2023), SAGindie, January 2024
• SAG-AFTRA's New Self-Tape Rules, Explained, Backstage
• SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical Contract Updates (2026), SAGindie, June 2026

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