20-Something Actors, Theatre/Drama/Acting Degrees, and Pilot Season

College Majors Theater/Drama Majors
1

I tried posting this yesterday, but the forum spam filter didn’t like my gift horse and immediately took it down so here is Take 2 in case it’s feeling more charitable today. haha

A friend of mine who used to post here as Fishbowlfreshman asked me to share some information that I gathered about the educational and training backgrounds of actors in their 20s who booked leads and series regular roles in network television pilots this year. Somebody told me last year that the majority of actors in their 20s who booked those roles were either former child stars or had Theatre/Drama/Acting degrees. I was skeptical about this, so I’ve been keeping track of who has booked what this year and guess what? It turned out to be true.

Now realizing that I’m talking to a lot of kids and parents who might not know what Pilot Season is, it’s the period that roughly takes place between January and May of each year during which the television networks cast and shoot sample episodes of programs from which they will choose for their fall lineups. Most of these shows will never see the light of day and booking one does not necessarily a sustained acting career make. However, being cast in one is definitely considerd to be an auspicious sign and I’ll posit that these bookings signify a trend now being seen in young working actors.

So when somebody hands you all the tired b/s that I that I had to suffer when I was coming along like “college training sucks, it’s a waste of time and money, it’s just for theatre, you will be squandering the four most marketable years of your life, you would be better off majoring in Business and then just show up in LA to take once-a-week classes and proclaim yourself a professional actor, David Mamet, Jennifer Lawrence, blah, blah, blah, and blah” … you can now drop this Truth Bomb on their pointy little heads and kindly tell them to go stuff it. haha

HERE ARE THE NUMBERS

48 Undergraduate Theatre/Drama/Acting Degrees - 34 American

8 Graduate Acting - 7 American

9 Non-degree conservatories - 2 American

12 Majored in something other than Acting with studio training or training background unknown - 12 American

19 Began their careers straight out of high school or foreign equivalent/No college/Studio Trained - 11 American

11 Unknown Education, Training Background, or Starting Age - 6 American

41 Former Child Stars/Began Careers as Minors - 33 American

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HERE ARE THE ACTORS

48 Undergraduate Acting - 34 American

Roberto Aguire - Series regular - CBS’ family cop drama pilot - BFA NYU/Tisch

Elizabeth Alderfer - Series regular - Disjointed - BFA NYU/Tisch

Utkarsh Ambudkar - Series regular - White Famous - BFA NYU/Tisch

Charlie Barnett - Series regular - Valor - BFA Juilliard

Tommy Bastow - Series regular - The Crossing - BA Drama Centre London.

Tiffany Boone - Series regular - The Chi - BFA CalArts

Rachel Brosnahan - Lead - The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel - BFA NYU/Tisch

Elizabeth Cappuccino - Lead - The Haunted - BFA NYU/Tisch

Mary Chieffo - Series regular - Star Trek: Discovery - BFA Juilliard

Ismael Cruz Cordova - Series regular - SMILF - BFA NYU/Tisch

David Corenswet - Series regular - The Tap - BFA Juilliard

Cameron Cuffe - Lead - Krypton - BA National Academy of Dramatic Art (Dublin)

W. Tré Davis - Series regular - Valor - BFA Webster Conservatory

Willa Fitzgerald - Series regular - Behind Enemy Lines - BA Theatre Studies, Yale.

Damon Gillespie - Series regular - Drama High - BFA Musical Theatre, Roosevelt University CCPA.

Brandon Micheal Hall - Lead - Untitled comedy pilot - BFA Juilliard

Matthew Hopkinson - Series regular - Dawn - BA Drama Centre London

Mattias Inwood - Series regular - Will - BA Toi Wakaari: New Zealand Drama School

Shazad Latif - Series regular - Star Trek: Discovery - Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (left a year early to take a role on a BBC show)

Carl Lundstedt - Series regular - Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger - BFA Carnegie Mellon

Justine Lupe - Series regular - Mr. Mercedes - BFA Juilliard

Elliot Knight - Series regular - Life Sentence - BA Manchester Metropolitan School of Theatre

Olivia Macklin - Series regular - LA -> Vegas - BA Fordham.

Jacob McCarthy - Series regular - Seth Myers Comedy - BA LAMDA

Caitlin McGee - Series regular - Libby and Malcolm - BA Wagner College

Jessica McKenna - Series regular - Jalen vs. Everybody - BA Northwestern

Okezie Morro - Series regular - The Mist - BA LAMDA

Ayden Mayeri - Series regular - Unit Zero - BA CSUF, Lesly Kahn, UCB graduate, IO West, Joseph Pearlman, Eric Morris, ACT Training Congress.

Laysla de Oliveira - Series regular - Jalen vs. Everybody - ??? Canadian theatre school.

James Ortiz - Series regular - World’s End - BFA SUNY Purchase (if correct James Ortiz)

Regé-Jean Page - Series regular - ABC’s Shondaland Legal Pilot - BA Drama Centre, London

Brigette Lundy-Paine - Series regular - Atypical - BFA NYU/Tisch

Aaron Pierre - Series regular - Krypton - BA LAMDA

Miguel Pinzon - Series regular - Amy’s Brother - BFA NYU/Tisch

Corbin Reid - Series regular - CW Drama Pilot - BFA Musical Theatre, University of Michigan.

Jake Robinson - Series regular - A Midsummer’s Nightmare - BFA Otterbein.

Emily Rudd - Series regular - Sea Change - Normandale Community College, AFA Theatre Performance and private coaching at Nancy Banks Studio.

Jon Rudnitsky - Lead - Happy Peppers - BFA USC and The Groundlings

Alex Russell - Series regular - CBS S.W.A.T Pilot - BA NIDA

Jack Cutmore-Scott - Lead - Deception - BA Harvard with a gap year at LAMDA

James Scully - Series regular - Heathers - BFA Otterbein

Kimmy Shields - Series regular - Insatiable - BFA Musical Theatre, AMDA LA. Also studies with John Rosenfeld.

Lyndon Smith - Lead - Untitled Shondaland Drama Pilot - BFA University of Florida

Sara Snook - Series regular - Succession - BA NIDA

Saamer Usmani - Lead - ABC’s Marc Cherry Pilot - BA LAMDA

Adrienne Warren - Series regular - Perfect Citizen - BFA Marymount Manhattan

Colin Woodell - Lead - The Tap - BFA USC

Ramona Young - Series regular - Thin Ice - BA Cal State LA and Playhouse West

8 Graduate Acting - 7 American

Genevieve Angelson - Lead - Happy Peppers - MFA NYU/Tisch

Melanie Field - Series regular - Heathers - MFA Yale Drama

Susannah Flood - Series regular - Charlie Foxtrot - MFA Brown/Trinity Rep

Jasmine Matthews - Series regular - Heathers - MFA UNLV

Olly Rix - Series regular - The Machine - MA LAMDA

Diona Reasonover - Series regular - Relatively Happy - MFA CalArts

Dina Shihabi - Series Regular - Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan - MFA NYU/Tisch

Shaunette Renée Wilson - Series regular - The Resident - MFA Yale.

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9 Non-degree conservatories - 2 American

Fola Evans-Akingbola - Series regular - Dawn - Identity Drama School (London)

Wallis Day - Series regular - Krypton - Arts Educational Foundation Course (London)

Natacha Karam - Series regular - For God and Country - 2-year Acting at City Lit (London)

Josh Kidd - Series regular - Searchers - The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, NYC 1-year program.

Melia Kreiling - Series regular - Behind Enemy Lines - London School of Dramatic Art (2-yr)

Chuku Modu - Series regular - The Good Doctor - The Richmond Drama School 1-year program (UK)

Matt Murray - Series regular - 9J, 9K and 9L - Canadian Film Centre

Anthony Ramos - Series regular - She’s Gotta Have It. Full scholarship to study Musical Theatre at AMDA in NYC.

Rebecca Rittenhouse - Lead - Real Life - BA in French and Hispanic Studies at University of Pennsylvania and 2.5 year conservatory at Atlantic Acting School.

12 Majored in something other than Acting with studio training or training background unknown - 12 American

Aparna Brielle - Series regular - Seth Myers comedy - Studied Marketing at Linfield College. Studied acting with Joel Morello/Arts & Communications Magnet Academy (OR), Berg Studios, Lesly Kahn, The Groundlings, and Annie Grindlay

David Castaneda - Series regular - CBS Paul Attanasio pilot - Somehow finished a BA double major in Film Production and International Business from Cal State Fullerton while working.

Paola Lazaro - Series regular - NBC’s untitled medical drama - BFA in Dramatic Writing, SUNY Purchase; MFA in Playwriting, Columbia University. Atlantic Theatre Company.

Annet Mahendru - Lead - The Machine - Studio trained with a BA in English. Has studied at HB Studio in NYC and Diana Castle and at The Groundlings in LA.

Hillary Anne Matthews - Series regular - ABC’s untitled single-camera startup comedy - Degree in English from Scripps College. Trained at UCB. Grew up around Cal Shakes.

Kim Matula - Series regular - LA -> Vegas - Dropped out of film school at UT Arlington to pursue acting. Studio training with Cathryn Hartt in Dallas and private coaching with Lar Park Lincoln

Jeanine Mason - Series regular - Searchers - “So You Think You Can Dance” winner. UCLA degree in World Arts and Cultures: Dance and Film minor. Actor training with Michael Woolson.

Nick Peine - Series regular - Seth Myers Pilot - Standup comic with a Psychology degree from Boston University.

Punam Patel - Lead - Brown Girls - Journalism Major/Theatre Minor at U. Florida and trained at Second City in Chicago.

Jay Pharoah - Lead - White Famous - Standup comic with a Business degree from VCU.

Erinn Westbrook - Series regular - Insatiable - BA in English, American Literature and Language, a secondary degree in Dramatic Arts and an advanced certification in Spanish, Harvard University.

Nafessa Williams - Series regular - Black Lightning - Criminal Justice degree from West Chester University. Studied acting with Susan Batson and at Tasha Smith Actors Workshop in NYC.

**19 Began straight out of high school or foreign equivalent/No college/Studio Trained - 11 American **

Jamie Campbell Bower - Series regular - Will - Former member of the National Youth Music Theatre and the National Youth Theatre (UK) who went to work at 18.

Luke Cosgrove - Series regular - The Mist - Studio trained Aussie.

Natalie Dreyfuss - Series regular - Brown Girls - Former dancer with family in the business who started straight out of high school.

Meghann Fahy - Series regular - The Bold Type - Began Broadway career at 18.

Alex Fitzalan - Series regular - The Get - ??? Aussie. Attended an arts high school, but didn’t get serious about his career for a few years.

Amy Forsyth - Series regular - Drama High - ??? Canadian. No college. Had been acting for ten years having started in musical theatre.

Chelsea Gilligan - Series regular - A Midsummer’s Nightmare - Former California Miss Teen USA. First booking at 18.

Daisy Head - Series regular - A Midsummer’s Nightmare - Began career at 18. Former dancer with family in the business in the UK.

Claire Holt - Lead - Doomsday - Aussie who started career with a series regular at 18.

Jharrel Jerome - Series regular - Mr. Mercedes - LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts and current student in the Ithaca College BFA.

Beau Knapp - Series regular - Seven Seconds - Studio trained. Family in the business.

Erin Moriarty - Series regular - Fox’s untitled university thriller drama - NYC native who started straight out of high school.

Lyrica Okano - Series regular - Marvel’s Runaways - Studies with Anthony Abeson in NYC.

Britne Oldford - Series regular - Untitled Paul Williams Davies/Shondaland Project - Canadian who “attended an arts intensive program, majoring in drama at a renowned arts school from her freshman to senior year of vocation, which proved vital in her transition into the entertainment industry.”

Melissa Roxburgh - Series regular - Valor - Canadian who started her career at 17.

Halston Sage - Series regular - Orville - ??? LA native who began career at 18

Carl Shaaban - Series regular - Dawn - Studied at The Abbey School of Music and Drama (Dublin)

Sean Teale - Lead - Fox’s Marvel action-adventure pilot - Brit who went to work straight out of A-Levels after being spotted by an agent in a school play.

Sam Vartholomeos - Series regular - Star Trek: Discovery - Has studied with David Epstein in NYC

Ellen Woglom - Series regular - Inhumans - ??? Began career at 18 after deferring from UCLA.

11 Unknown Education, Training Background, or Starting Age - 6 American

Gabriel Chavarria - Series regular - Behind Enemy Lines - ???

Natalie Hall - Lead - Libby & Malcolm - ??? Canadian.

Wavyy Jonez - Series regular - Unsolved - ??? Rapper who will play Notorious B.I.G.

Skyler Maxon - Series regular - Sea Change - ???

Sofia Pernas - Series regular - Redliners - ??? Moraccan

Brendan Scannell - Series regular - Heathers - ??? Gay niche standup background.

Marcc Rose - Series regular - Unsolved - ??? Dead ringer for Tupac Shakur whom he also played in “Straight Outta Compton.”

Taylor Russell - Series regular - Lost in Space - ??? Canadian.

Keenan Tracey - Series regualar - Sea Change - ??? Canadian and the son of Ian Tracey.

Rhys Ward - Series regular - A Midsummer’s Nightmare - ??? Canadian.

Daniel Zovatto - Series regular - Untitled Alan Ball Project - ???

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41 Former Child Stars/Began Careers as Minors - 33 American

Sosie Bacon - Series regular - Untitled Alan Ball - Began career at 10 despite A-List parents’ opposition. Go figure …

India de Beaufort - Series regular -The Gospel of Kevin - Brit who began career at 15, but also attended Esher College, Surrey.

Sarah Bolger - Lead - Sons of Anarchy spinoff - Irish actress who began career at 8, but also attended The Young People’s Theatre School in Dublin.

Nicholas Braun - Series regular - Succession - Began professional career at 13.

Chloe Bridges - Series regular - Daytime Divas - Started career at 15.

Georgina Campbell - Series regular - Krypton - Started career at 16, but also got a degree in Film Studies from Royal Holloway, U. London.

Shanley Caswell - Series regular - Perfect Citizen - Began career at 16, but still got an Anthropology degree from UCLA. Misc. studio training.

Isabelle Cornish - Series regular - Inhumans - Began career at 17. Attended Hunter School of Performing Arts (AU)

Miranda Cosgrove - Series regular - Spaced Out - Began career before she was 7.

Grace Victoria Cox - Lead - Heathers - Moved to LA after her junior year at a performing arts school in Kentucky.

Madison Davenport - Series regular - Sharp Objects - Began career at 9.

John D’Leo - Series regular - The Crossing - Began career at 12.

Griffin Freeman - Series regular - University Thriller Pilot - Worked consistently in commercials in the Atlanta market by 13.

Ellie Gall - Series regular - A Midsummer’s Nightmare - Began career at 13.

Virginia Gardner - Series regular - Marvel’s Runaways - Began career at 16.

Keir Gilchrist - Series regular - Atypical - Began career at 15.

Elizabeth Gillies - Series regular - Dynasty reboot - Began career at 15.

Lucy Hale - Lead - Life Sentence - Started career at 15.

Freddie Highmore - Series regular - The Good Doctor - Began career at 7, but still earned a Double First in Spanish and Arabic at Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

Olivia Holt - Lead - Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger - Former Disney star who started acting when she was 3 years old and had her first professional bookings when she was 10.

Aubrey Joseph - Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger - Former child actor whose first booking was on Law & Order: SVU in 2014 after finishing the Professional Performing Arts School in New York. Booked pilot while a freshman in the USC BFA.

Malachi Kirby - Series regular - The Machine - Began career as teenager.

Jacob Latimore - Series regular - The Chi - Former child singer who began acting career at 13.
Alex McGregor - Lead - Searchers - Canadian/South African. First tv role at 11.

Bridgit Mendler - Lead - Thin Ice - Began career at 13.

Kelley Missal - Series regular - The Crossing - Began career at 15.

Amy Okuda - Series regular - Atypical - First theatrical booking at 17. Apparent commercials before that.

Haley Joel Osment - Series Regular - Untitled Strange New Things Project - Began career at 4.

Carlos PenaVega - Series regular - Life Sentence - Began career at 10, but also spent some time studying Musical Theatre at Boston Conservatory.

Debby Ryan - Lead - Insatiable - Former Disney star who started acting in professional theatre when she was 7.

Brenda Song - Series regular - Real Life - Began career at “5 or 6.”

Sarah Steele - Series regular - The Good Fight - Began career at 15, but still got a degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.

Katie Stevens - Series regular - The Bold Type - Former teenage American Idol contestant.

Gregg Sulkin - Series regular - Marvel’s Runaways - Began career at 10.

Max Thieriot - Lead - CBS’ untitled Navy SEAL drama pilot - Began career at 16.

Matthew James Thomas - Series regular - NBC’s untitled medical drama - Began career at 8. Also trained at Sylvia Young Theatre School and Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London.

Samara Weaving - Series regular - SMILF - Began career at 16.

Mae Whitman - Series regular - Good Girls - Began career at 3 with first film role at 6.

Mark L. Young - Series regular - Ten Days in the Valley - Began career at 12.

Bridger Zadina - Series regular - The Machine - Began career at 13.

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Interesting info - thank you!

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thanks super helpful. And as a side note, go Damen Gillespie!!!

7

Very interesting… could I get a little clarification…
Sorry don’t know how to quote. you said

I was skeptical about this, so I’ve been keeping track of who has booked what this year and guess what? It turned out to be true.

What turned out to be true… that the statement about child actors getting most pilots or that your hunch that many came from colleges was true. ( i think is the later but I just wanted clarification.)

When you state the numbers and then so many “American” what does American refer to?

Thank you for sharing your research… I appreciate your clarifying for me… I just want to make sure I understand what I am reading.

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@KTVoice

As per the previous sentence in the paragraph, it means that at least this year, most of the actors who booked leads or series regular roles in network pilots are EITHER former child stars OR studied acting in college. The other commonly prescribed training paths just don’t stack up numerically although it could be argued that around a third were neither child stars nor studied acting in college which doesn’t really reflect the reality given the divergence of the other paths. Honestly, I found this surprising yet also somewhat vindicating given all that I was “told” over the years as reflected in paragraph #3. haha

I kept count of how many of the actors are American citizens because there has been so much recent talk about how many actors on American television are actually British, Canadian, Australian, or some other nationality these days. Also, while I have decided not to share the information I’ve gathered so far because of the sensitive nature of the side-discussions it could generate, I’ve been keeping track of ethnic diversity in these castings as well which I will hypothesize reflects an emphasis that most likely did not exist in the past.

9

You have no idea how helpful this is and I so appreciate all the work you put in. As I posted a couple of months ago on the application season board for class of 2021, my daughter had a bit of a freak out after an encounter during pilot season. So she had two pilot auditions one day several weeks ago with a few hours to kill in between. She didn’t know what to do with herself so I told her to go up to her agent’s office and hang out a bit since it was close by. So she’s talking to the assistant telling him how her BFA auditions are going and where she has applied and a random guy (actor) pulls her over and decides to give her some unsolicited advice. He tells her don’t bother going for a BFA…he’s still paying his off and it never did anything for him. He says that because she has an agent and a great look she shouldn’t waste the next four years, she should either go to a two year conservatory or go to college for something else, take acting classes in NYC and audition. It really freaked her out and she began to doubt her path. By the way I looked the guy up and he’s a pretty successful actor who has a BFA in MT from Boco. At that point we decided to put in an application to AADA just in case she booked a pilot and needed to change her plan. Anyway after a couple of weeks her mind settled down about it. The other thing is that her agent actually has a BFA in MT from Pace and she has said to me that my D doesn’t need a BFA. She said she goes to college showcases all the time and rarely even takes anyone. I think she said she only took one person from Juilliard and she would rather have my D than any of them! Nice compliment but it definitely spooked me. Because she does have an agent who also has an office in LA she is seriously considering attending LMU because it’s a BA and she will still be able to audition for pilots, etc. She was also accepted to CaLARTS (she wants to be in Cali) and they will not allow you to miss more than two days of school so if she goes there forget pilot season! But she still may go…we are visiting soon and we shall see!

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Wow, what a compilation!

Just to add…Haley Joel Osment went to school with my daughter and has a BFA from NYU/Tisch. Yes, he was first a professional child actor, but he also has the BFA.

Ismael Cruz Cordova was also a classmate of my daughter’s at NYU/Tisch and they were in a performance group together after college. I didn’t know he was a series regular on TV. Good for him.

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@marg928 How old was this actor who took your daughter aside for the unsolicited advice? While they usually mean well, something I have found is that you have to be careful in listening to screen actors in their 30s who came along in the early part of the last decade when the market was very different than it is today.

Back then, there were lots of shows like “The OC” which made the 18-to-play-younger casting range all the rage and it was a real possibility that a good looking kid from the Midwest could just show up in LA with very little training or experience and find himself on a show six months later while being primarily trained by a set coach. Moreover, most of the casting took place in person in LA or sometimes NYC instead of the situation we now face with classically trained Brits and Aussies with mile-long resumes who are also “perfect” for the role that we thought might make our careers just a click and a video away.

If you’ll notice, most of those young actors from back then who came to prominence that way are no longer on the scene because they never developed the craft to transition into serious adult roles. They have been phased out and supplanted by those highly skilled Brits and Aussies who were making their own way on the BBC or ABC while the American actors who had taken the time for proper training were for the most part being shut out of the market by the 18 tpys and were not getting the experience needed to be considered ripe to carry a network show or a big budget film. This is why you sometimes hear actors in that age range who earned BFAs grouse about how it “never did anything” for them although I have found that if you really back them into a corner about it, they will usually admit that the training did what it was supposed to do which was to make them better actors market-be-damned.

Thankfully, it’s just not like that anymore as the numbers I have offered here would seem to indicate.

@soozievt The Tischies are tearing it up this year, aren’t they? I almost didn’t want to post this because nobody from my school has booked yet. But hey, I’m already on a show and I went there, dammit! haha

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@Gyokoren the actor is actually 43 so there you go! Thanks again…great insight!!! And he’s still working so I’m sure that degree did help him much more than he realizes! The story he told my D was that he gave that same advice to another young actor who took it…and now said actor is Captain America LOL.

13

Great compilation! Thank you for this and fishbowlfreshman for asking you to share this!

14

This is great information. There are always a few who choose to go to a 2 yr conservatory and are able to make it. But for the vast majority, it makes more sense to pursue a BFA or MFA. My S fell in love with a conservatory but I think we may opt for college and a summer program at the conservatory. Best of both worlds.

15

Thank you for this @Gyokoren! I will agree with you on the fact that a BFA is not wasted. My daughter (who is graduating from Tisch BFA in May) met with an agent from William Morris when she was a sophomore. He told her that she should absolutely finish her BFA and that it would serve her well as far as castings. I am very happy that she took his advice!

16

Thank you for compiling this information @Gyokoren! Also I found CC over the past few months and have been mesmerized with @fishbowlfreshman posts!

17

Great post, thank you for this research.

My S and D go to LAMDA and there are actually still more LAMDA grads tearing up the screen :slight_smile:

I want to point out also that there is a substantial subset of actors who are both child actors or already highly connected in the biz and BFA, – Soozievt brings up Haley Joel Osment. But there are many additional child actors/highly connected folks who are less visible, so the connections are less obvious.

I only bring this up as a response to those who say education doesn’t matter. If education/training didn’t matter, then these highly connected folks and successful child actors would not bother to get their BFAs.

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@connections Right. Lots go to drama school or just regular college. To step outside what I can quantify for a moment, my feeling is that for some of them, it really isn’t so much the training and education that they crave all that much more than it is to just get away from Hollywood and live like normal human beings for a few years. There was a time when I envied those who got to start when they were children. But now that I know some and actually work with one who is now in his 30s on a daily basis, that is no longer the case. It’s a different set of stressors they face long before they are really mature enough to handle them and I thank my lucky stars that I got to incubate at a good school before I came out.

However, the ones that last into their 30s and beyond like the (wonderful) man I work with have usually taken both their craft and their personal growth seriously over the years whether they went to college or not. The others for whom acting was a mere financial transaction instead of a passion or who became so arrogant and entitled from their early successes that complacency set in and they ceased to grow in this art, craft, and profession? Not so much.

19

This thread has been quite informative! many thanks!

20

My D is a recent CMU grad with a BFA in acting. She’s been out in NY trying to get booked in… something other than community theater. She’s also been on a few auditions for commercials and TV. Here’s what we have learned so far~ Casting directors, producers, directors, agents… don’t care that you have a BFA… or where it came from!!! Your $400,000+ degree from a prestigious acting school will typically NOT get you booked. If you’ve got the money to blow and are talented enough to get into a very selective acting program like CMU, than go for it… but the prestige of the school will not get you jobs or representation!! And, be warned, it’s far more competitive and saturated than we ever thought!! 1200 submissions for 1 role is about the norm!! And don’t even get me started on the run around she got from many agents who saw her at her showcases!! One very reputable agent in particular liked her performance at showcase, called her in for a meeting, not once, but 3 times, then e-mailed her and said your beautiful and talented but we can’t represent you at this time. Um… ok, thanks for nothing. Bottom line: It is a lot about who you know, not what you know… and luck. The icing on the cake was when she was called into a very successful casting director’s office to audition for the role of a 15 second screaming woman on a popular TV show. We thought… “Oh, she’s got this! She knows how to scream! CMU had a whole semester on it (Ha)!” She couldn’t even book that… a role that any joe blow off the street could have done. She gained a lot from CMU in many other ways… great friends, wonderful boyfriend, education, memories… but as far as booking jobs she probably could have gone to a community college, state college, or a 2 year acting program and been just fine. This post is simply to give some honest feedback of our experiences so far. She is $90,000 in debt at barely 22, and can’t even book a regional acting job. Its scary, so think it through!!