The essential, one-stop handbook for actors, with everything you need to survive and thrive, from the team behind the internationally successful Surviving Actors conventions.

Being an actor is a vocation, but it’s also a real-life job. Talent, determination and passion are vital, but will only get you so far. In addition to developing the craft of acting, actors have to remember that it is a career, and so the business side needs to be taken just as seriously.

This manual covers the day-to-day essentials you need to succeed in the industry, with sections that cover:

• Establishing your personal brand and business plan
• Getting great headshots, showreels, voicereels and a website
• Dealing with agents, casting directors and auditions
• Developing your networking skills
• And managing your money

Honest, straightforward, but also empowering, it will help you unlock your potential and focus on being the best, most employable – and, hopefully, successful – actor you can be.

Compiled by the team at Surviving Actors, and drawing on a wide range of other experienced professionals, the Surviving Actors Manual is designed to help you develop and sustain your career and to create your own new opportunities.

Felicity Jackson and Lianne Robertson both trained as actors. Together they run Surviving Actors, founded in 2009 to help and encourage other actors in all areas of their professional lives.