How to find an agent?

You may have the talent and skills to make it big in the show business but the attempts to break into the industry are futile without an agent and to be precise a right agent. A good agent is critical to the success of your efforts to get into show business. There are many agents who advertize to get candidates, some look out for them on the roads and malls promising a bright future to the prospective actors. But beware of these agents. Reputed agents never advertize to get actors. They already have a bee-line at their door and thus would never be required to advertize, their hands are always full with aspiring actors willing to get a break in this fantastic industry.

But before working with an agent question yourself what you are looking for in an agent. Decide whether you want a union or a non-union agent. Also important is to do a self check of your desires, your talents and decide what type of agent you need at this juncture of your career. It is well understood fact that though not impossible but actors seldom sticks with one agent during their career. Also many a times agents provide only extra work to the aspiring actors instead of principal roles due to their limited reach to the well known directors. Also look out to see if the agent has a big list of names or only few. The fewer the clients he may have the lesser the demand or popularity of that agent.

But how do you find a good agent? Locating a good agent is not so easy. While few out of business may advertize but the fact is majority of the agents do not advertize and are thus very difficult to locate even on yellow or white pages and the fact is good agents do not need to advertize. One of the legitimate places to find a right talent agent is actingland.com which is a very popular website for online acting community where you can find many talent agents and their contact details. It has the list of all the agents affiliated to Screen Actors Guild and also American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. These agents are also called acting union affiliated agents as they follow the code of conduct putt forth by these two unions and stay away from non-scrupulous practices. All major cities have agents affiliated with these unions which are also called franchised agents. The reason why franchised agents are important to the success of aspiring actors is they put their client’s interest above their own and go that extra mile to ensure their success. Not only that they also work towards better pay for their actors and help make actors smart decisions.

You can also contact Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to get the names and addresses of their affiliated agents. Once you get a list of talent agents you should start mailing them your resume and headshot copies. If you live or plan to work in a big city you can start out with few at a time and then continue on likewise. One of the other ways to find a good agent is to get noticed by working in plays in your area and never forget to have a copy of your resume and headshot handy when you travel. Also social networking helps a lot in finding a right agent. Attend local events and make friends with other aspirants to broaden your knowledge about the industry and its current affairs. One of the key to finding an agent is to be patient as you may not find a good agent at the first go but in fact it may take several meetings with the agents until you find a right one. Once you find a right agent your problem is nearly half solved.