Here is five years worth of research with a lot of commentary from me and others which suggests that if you know deep in your bones that you want to be a professional actor, getting the degree from a good school is probably going to be your best bet for achieving that goal as long as you can pull it off without burying yourself in debt …
During the last three Pilot Seasons, I made lists of young adult actors aged roughly 23-33 who booked leading and series regular roles and grouped them into the most common educational and training paths based on what I could find of their backgrounds. Now to conclude the study, instead of offering long lists of individual actors like in the past, I have listed the schools those with college and conservatory training attended along with the numbers of bookings from each. Plus, I have further divided the categories of those who majored in subjects besides Acting into subgroups of related courses of study along with dividing those who began their careers with high school educations into additional subgroups showing prior training, experience, major market residency, etc. This should bring some light to the realities behind the advice often given to serious young American actors suggesting that it is best to major in something “practical” like Business or STEM or just move to New York …
In 2018 and 2019, I posted information that I had gathered about the educational and training backgrounds of young adult actors aged roughly 23-33 who booked leading and series regular roles in pilots and straight-to-series orders during Pilot Season grouped into the most common paths. While I didn’t think I would have time to do it again this year, the recent turn of events with COVID-19 has brought the entertainment industry to a halt and left me with more time than I would have liked. Much more. So I decided to conduct the study again maintaining the 23-33 age range and yet again, the numbers of those who majored in Theatre/Drama/Acting in college has dominated the other categories. I also kept close track of diversity and nationality and will post that information on request.
Now, realizing that I’m talking to 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 netwo…
Hello again.
In 2017 and 2018, I posted information that I had gathered about the educational and training backgrounds of young adult actors who booked leads and series regular roles in pilots and straight-to-series orders during Pilot Season grouped into the most common paths. I decided to do it again this year maintaining the age range of roughly 23-33 and once again, the numbers of those who majored in Theatre/Drama in college dominated the other categories. I also kept close track of diversity and nationality in these castings since they have been such big topics of conversation the past few years and will post that information on request.
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 …
Last year, a friend of mine who used to post here as Fishbowlfreshman asked me to share some information that had I gathered about the educational and training backgrounds of [actors in their 20s who booked leads and series regular roles during Pilot Season.](http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/theater-drama-majors/1975970-20-something-actors-theatre-drama-acting-degrees-and-pilot-season-p1.html ) It seemed to go over pretty well with this audience, so I decided to go ahead and share this year’s information on my own. Be gentle because Fishbowl is busy and won’t have time to back me up if I run into trouble and y’all make me cry. haha
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 nev…
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 fr…
Hello again.
In 2018, 2019, and 2020, I posted information that I had gathered about the educational and training backgrounds of young adult actors aged roughly 23-33 who booked leading and series regular roles during Pilot Season grouped into the most common paths. Then I compiled those numbers into a three-year study to conclude the project with a note that I might do it again at some point in the future if I saw what appeared to be a significant change in casting trends. I noticed no such change, but I did notice some pushback against the study on other forums as being out of date and no longer relevant because the pandemic had changed literally everything. So, I took some time this year to test those assertions and found them to be wrong. The balances in the training paths remained within the limits of the previous years and once again, the numbers of those who majored in Theatre/Drama/Acting in college retained their dominance versus those of the other paths. I also kept…
And here is why I think that is …
I haven’t seen the topic of college vs. studio training come up on this forum much during the time that I have been occasionally monitoring. However, from having gone back and read discussions from years ago when a friend of mine posted frequently, I thought that now might be a good time to offer my perspective - especially since activity here seems to be at an all-time low. You guys need to wake up! haha
This is neither a perfect nor ideal world and neither is any particular training route. However, if you are somebody who has sufficient aptitude to be trained to act professionally, you will usually be best off laying your foundation in the craft of acting in a good college acting program as long as you can pull it off without burying yourself in debt. I have previously offered three years worth of research from the world of television casting to back that up and will posit that if such numbers were compiled from the theatre world, they would be overwhelming. http://collegeco…
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