Acting Tips: Writing your Actor Bio

Actors often have trouble writing their actor's bio, which is probably why Playbill bios tend to be folksy/cutesy. We feel awkward and self-conscious, and it shows.

Gwyn Gilliss has an informative piece on the topic in Backstage this week (you can see the full article here) that gives useful guidelines that sound right on the money.  I will say that having been a professional writer I still managed to miss most of this, so my next task this morning is rewriting my bio.

Here's Gwyn's step-by-step advice:

Paragraph 1: Recent roles/Strongest credits. (Theater if you’re in New York and film/TV if you’re in L.A.) Try to use recognizable plays and roles, not just “showcases.” If you’re just starting out, you can include “representative” roles. Those parts from Shakespeare or Chekov done at school outweigh showcases of unknown writers Off-Off-Broadway.

Paragraph 2: Training. Don’t be afraid to name drop master teachers or prestigious drama schools, as well as directors you’ve studied with. If you’ve worked with “greats,” they will assume you will be great!

Paragraph 3: Recent work. (Switch what you included in paragraph one.) Include Indie films and appearances on primetime or daytime TV or include all major stage credits from Off-Off-Broadway to Broadway. Your credits tell them how to cast you and what roles you are consistently hired to play. Don’t include extra work—it's not considered a professional credit if you’re standing in the background.

Paragraph 4: Personal Life. Here, write about your interests, skills, travel, languages, or musical instruments—anything that makes you memorable. Elaborate don’t just list.

She also weighs in on style, advising actors to keep it short, avoid lists, give the "what" not the "why," and write in the third person and in inverted pyramid style that puts the most important information first.

Good stuff!

I would only add that somewhere in there - probably up near the top - you find a way to work in the three on-screen qualities that make you compelling as an actor.  For example, I'm often cast in power roles - judge, corporate executive, member of Congress - so my three qualities are "forceful, intelligent, pragmatic."  It can help in casting.

I would also advise that you downplay training as you build experience. Once you've gotten recognizably good roles, training becomes less and less important.

#CapSouth sees print in today's Politico

An actor will take good news wherever he/she can find it, and this is the week my horoscope said my career was going to take off! I know nothing about the movement of the planets but - so far - it's looking pretty darn good!

Check out the spread on my new political comedy #CapSouth in today's edition of Politico!  That's me as Congresswoman Gracie Todd Englewright in the photo at lower right, with the statue of former House Speaker Sam Rayburn. The series was created by Rob Raffety, and the cast (playing my Capitol Hill staff) includes NY comic Andrew Heaton, R. Michael Oliver, Allison J. Howard, Naomi Brockwell, Satya Thallam, Chris Mannix, and a host of others.

The CapSouth Marketing Team has been working overtime and doing a bang-up job.

July 8th spread in Politico

Congresswoman Gracie Todd Englewright arrives in Washington!

Gracie arrives in Washington, DC, this week in the new YouTube political comedy #CapSouth. The nation's capital may never be the same.

Congresswoman Gracie Todd Englewright in #CapSouth     Photo by Lauren Shannon

Finding comedy in a scene

My new political comedy, CapSouth, is launching this week on YouTube. Whew, high tension!  It's already been written up in RollCall, The Hill and Politico, and rumor has it that an important announcement will soon be made in Buzzfeed.

I don't think of myself as a comic actress and, as I've said before, feel somewhat like I'm playing the Margaret Dumont role in a brilliant cast of Marx Brothers.

But there are tips even second bananas can draw upon to find comedy in a scene. Backstage magazine recently had a nice piece by actor and audition coach Michael Kostroff that outlined some of the frequently recurring elements to consider when approaching a comedy script. They are:

"Disproportion: an extreme reaction to a small problem; a small reaction to a huge problem; lots of effort for an easy task; little effort for a great task.

"Lack of self-awareness: an unattractive character who thinks he’s irresistibly good-looking; a drunk who thinks he’s behaving normally.

"Awkwardness created by obligations, such as manners, customs, etiquette, social norms, restrictions, or assignments: trying to stay awake while a talkative dinner guest overstays his welcome; hiding an embarrassing stain at an important job interview; Lucy and Ethel at the chocolate factory…look it up!

"Skewed status: a bossy secretary; a wimpy king; a snobby beggar.

"Wrong person for the job: an insecure psychotherapist; a squeamish surgeon; a tone-deaf backup singer.

"Recognizable human foibles: nervousness about asking someone out; dissolving at the sight of a baby; pining for food while on a diet; not making sense first thing in the morning."

There are many more elements than these six of course. For a more in-depth look at playing comedy, check out Scott Sedita's excellent book The Eight Characters of Comedy: A Guide to Sitcom Acting and Writing, which is available in both hardcover and Kindle editions.

Now, on to the launch! By the way, my CapSouth character, Congresswoman Gracie Todd Englewright, has her own fan page on Facebook, where she responds to questions and comments from her "constituents." This is going to be a fun run.   

Acting Tips: Defining acting roles on your résumé

What am I?

I just posted a new television credit to my résumé, which again raised the issue of billing and how to officially define a role. Résumé credit terminology can be dizzying shades of gray and for years the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) had different terms for similar roles.

There are clues.  If you’re working a union television contract, your billing should be spelled out specifically in your contract.  If you have no contract or deal memo for your work, you can check the original breakdown for the project, as the billing for the role is often listed after the character description. You can also check with your agent or someone in production.

This is what I came up with, broken down by genre:

FILM

Lead (Star): The actor appears in most scenes in a role that is central to the story and without which the film would not exist.  His/her name is often in the on-screen credits at the beginning of the film, in addition to appearing in the complete end credits.

Principal: In film, this term refers to a speaking role, without getting too specific about how central the actor’s character is to the story. It has also been used to denote non-contract players who have five or more lines.

Supporting: The actor fills a principal role and appears in one or more scenes.  Although important to the storyline, the role is not a lead character.

Featured: The actor has one scene with one or more lines; not big enough to be a supporting role and easily cut from the final version of the film. If the role stays in, the actor’s name appears in the end credits.

Cameo: A term that designates an established star in a stunt-cast role.

Background: The actor fills a non-speaking role with no on-screen credit given. Sometimes you will see the term "Featured Background," which means you're not in a crowd scene but clearly recognizable, i.e. standing next to the star. Either way, Background should not appear on an acting résumé.

TELEVISION

Series Regular: The actor is under exclusive contract with the show to appear (or be paid regardless of appearing) every week.

Recurring: The actor returns as the same character over multiple episodes, either on a standing contract or contracted periodically, with payment based on the terms negotiated and the number of appearances.

Guest Star: The actor appears as a one-episode guest whose character's storyline is central to that particular episode. The actor works at the standard union weekly rate, even if filming takes place over only a day or two.

Co-star: The actor appears as a one-episode guest whose character may or may not be central to that episode’s storyline.  Co-star billing is typically negotiated and is unrelated to the size of the role.

Contract Role: This is an AFTRA contract term for a series regular or recurring character on a daytime soap opera.

Under 5: This is an AFTRA contract term for a role with between one and five lines.  You could also use the term “Featured,” but it is so often applied to a role as an Extra, where you appear prominently in a scene but without lines, that it may be misleading if you have lines.

Cameo: A term that designates an established star in a stunt-cast role, i.e. Brad Pitt appearing in an episode of Friends.

Extra: A non-speaking role with no on-screen credit. This billing should not appear on an acting résumé.

THEATRE

Theatre credits on a résumé typically include only the character name, as the role size is generally known. If the production is an original work or a recent play, however, an actor may note "lead" or "supporting" after the character name. Also noteworthy is whether the actor originated the role, especially if the play later becomes well known.

Understudy:  A stage term for an actor who will only appear in a principal role if the primary actor cast in that role (and for whom the actor is understudying) cannot perform.  It should be noted however that some theatres guarantee a certain number of performances for understudies.

It's almost Emmy time

The producers of House of Cards are getting creative in touting their cast for the upcoming Emmy awards. Here in Washington, DC, where the show is a hands down favorite of Hill staff, we love the yardsign idea.

The 65th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards will honor the best in primetime television programming airing from June 1, 2012 until May 31, 2013, so the 13 HOC episodes released by Netflix slide right in there. But will they consider it officially television? Well, it's being broadcast in Australia!

The awards ceremony, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, will be held on September 22, 2013 at the Nokia Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles, California.  I'm pulling for Corey Stoll, who gave a riveting performance as Congressman Peter Russo - tragic, human, heartbreaking in his final scenes on screen.  Illuminating interview of Stoll at ET Online here. This was truly a breakout role for a terrific actor. 

An actor's Klout number: What does it mean?

I attended a SAG workshop a couple of weeks ago where a recent arrival from New York City was adamant that an actor’s Klout number was now checked by every casting person in NY and Los Angeles and that it was entering into the decision to hire.

I queried my agent about this and she said her talent in LA talked about it a lot. They told her it is a number that tells how well you are doing in the acting business. Famous actors have a large number;  new talent much, much smaller. Actors have to work their way up the ladder, they said - work hard, get great roles - to increase their numbers.

The SAG actress who insisted it was a big deal said she had 2,500 Twitter followers and a 28 Klout number, which she said was pretty good. Well I decided to run a test using my Twitter account, because I had until then seldom tweeted anything and had only 4 followers.

I started out with an 11 Klout number and within a week had manipulated it up to 31, simply by replying to tweets from large entertainment organizations and famous industry people in a way that encouraged them to retweet my comment to their own followers. So instead of just reaching out to my 4 followers, I was suddenly reaching out to director Ron Howard’s 650,000 followers, or FilmFestNews' 49,000 followers.

Basically, what I did was write every reply as a complete thought that repeated the basics of the original tweet and added information the author might think valuable.

Interestingly, the rise in my Klout number did not affect my IMDb rating, which actually dipped slightly during the same period. (My Twitter followers went up though; I now have 11!  Hah!)

Surely there must be more to this because, as my experience showed, an actor does not have to work hard and get great roles (not that I object to that!) to get their number up. On the other hand, every big name in the biz seems to be on Twitter, including people like Ron Howard, who you would think would have far more important things to do than post a tweet every hour! (Love ya, Ron!)

So I'm going to keep my number up.  At least until somebody figures out that this is not the best measure for box office.

Anyone have any more on this? Am I confusing this Klout number with a different Klout number? Please chime in.