How to find an Agent? .. Part 1

First of all, welcome to my blog. Although this blog was created with our clients in mind, I would like to welcome all actors, musicians, writers, models, directors.. anyone who wants or needs to have an agent or manager and wants to learn more about the Industry. I will share with you my experience working over 15 years in film/television and another 25 years in music industry.

If you have any specific question, please send me a message using the email on the bottom of this page and I will try to answer them accordingly.

Let’s talk about basics – how to find the right agency, how to contact them, and how to prepare yourself for a meeting with an agent. Yes, a meeting. Not an interview. Please remember, we don’t interview you. We meet with you to see if we are right fit for a potential collaboration.

There are so many ways these days to do the research on agencies and managements. You can find directories listing all agencies and managers either online or hard copies in your local bookstores (e.g Drama Book Store in NYC). You can ask your friends, fellow actors, writers, musicians who representatives are and if they are happy with them. If you are taking acting classes, ask your coaches who they would recommend. Make a list of your favorite agencies and move to step 2 – do the research on them.

If you are already a SAG-AFTRA or AEA member, check their websites if the agency is on the list of franchised agents. Any franchised agency is licensed by the State. If you are not a union member yet, and you are considering non-franchised agency, check how many clients the agency has, and how many agents are representing them, what kind of jobs their clients booked etc. (ImdbPro).

Please take time to do the research. You want to know as much information about the agency you want to work with as possible. You should know name/s of agents, owners etc before you contact them. The relationship between agent and client is like a marriage. You trust them not only with your career but with your life as well.

Ok, you made your final list of agents you decided to contact. What next?

Before you start sending out submissions, be sure that you have everything ready for your collaboration with agent. Check your Actors Access and Casting Network accounts. I assume, that you already have complete profiles. And by complete, I mean all information is updated, your headshots are up to date, you have a slate, clips, and demo real uploaded.

Perfect. If you were able to get letters of recommendations from your coaches, professors, casting directors or other industry professionals, you are in a good place and ready to send your materials to the Agency. Similar with writers, more supporting materials you can present to the agent, the better, and your chances to get an agent are much higher.

What would be the next step? Should I send all my materials via snail mail (hard copies) or email?

Personally, I believe that at this point you should just email your materials. Save on paper and postage!

Sending an email to the agency, please double check, if there is a specific way to do that (could vary from agency to agency). Be sure that you have the correct name. The mail itself should be very short. One – two sentences of introduction, your headshot, resume and your small picture included in the body of the email (if recommended by anyone, please let us know in the subject of the email).

Please, have respect for our time. None of us have time to read long emails, your childhood stories, and bunch of links which take us to your google drive, iCloud etc. When we decide to work together we will have time to listen to those stories! 🙂

Well, email was sent out, now you have to patiently wait for the answer. Sometimes it takes a few hours, in some cases few weeks, or even months (all depends on the agency, how busy, or if they look for your type). You can send the follow up email in a few weeks, however, if you still don’t hear from them, it probably means that they are not interested in you!

 

Cheers!