Rhoda Pell's 10 Strategies for Earning your First Acting Credits (without an Agent), Part 1

Every actor coming into the business needs to build a list of credits that showcases their type, their skills, and their credibility. Los Angeles is the world’s toughest market for actors. You need to become known and build a body of work, but casting agencies already have their favorites and can be reluctant to book a new face. Talent agents, who can be very helpful later in your career, won’t talk to you if you have no credits (unless of course you have a referral from your uncle the famous actor).

Rhoda Pell with actor Geoffrey Gould

So how does one start earning acting credits without an agent? I was thinking about this actor dilemma last week when I came across Rhoda Pell’s profile online at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Wow! She currently lists a dozen films in pre- or post-production, and that doesn't include her commercials, music videos, and other projects, most of which don't post to IMDb. This is one busy actress!

How does she do it? Well, as the saying goes, if you don’t succeed at first it sometimes happens that you succeed at last.

For Rhoda Pell, acting began with roles in school plays and enrollment at Los Angeles City College, where classmates included actress Cindy Williams, actor Alan Abelew, and actor/producer Bruce Kimmel.

But then came San Francisco’s Summer of Love, parenthood (her son Barney is named for the famous West Hollywood eatery), and 32 years working for the phone company. She never gave up on her dream, but it wasn’t until 2001 that Rhoda decided to take early retirement and finally go for it.

Since then she has been phenomenal at booking films and commercials, racking up more than 260 credits - half of them in principal roles - with big names like Katy Perry, Shia LaBeouf, Ed Asner, Kelly Clarkson, Blake Shelton, Bruno Mars, and others.  She’s played homeless, insane, naked, dead, and covered in fake blood while up to her waist in mud (many of her clips are "liked" on her YouTube Channel).

Read Part 2 to see how she got her acting career up and running.