I’m actually writing this post to let you all know that I’ve started a new company! I’m really excited to share with you all. Not to worry, I’ll always write for The Acting Room, and I’ll always You can’t wait for your life to get started while you’re trying to get your other creative careers going!teach acting and work on films. Those passions are my heart and soul. So keep coming back and keep acting!…

But I also hope this story about what I’m doing inspires you to think about ways you can support yourself while you’re getting your acting career up and running. I’m also writing this to let everyone know that being an artist can be hard, and that you can’t wait for your life to get started while you’re trying to get your other creative careers going!

As many of you know by now, I’ve been an actress AND …

I get many emotional reactions to my post “The Seven Reasons Why Professional Acting Training Programs Simply Aren’t Worth It.” In fact, that one post alone gets about a thousand hits a month, and brings lots of traffic to this blog. That blows my mind. I never meant to be so controversial.

Heck, I have an MFA in Acting and there were many things I absolutely LOVED about my two year USC program. But after I got out of the program, I learned that I’d spent about $75,000 to go there, and I could have spent that much money putting a down payment on a house in LA, or even funded my own indie film. I could have taken ten years of private classes (on my own time and schedule) with the most famous acting coaches in the world! I’ve also received many angry comments …

Okay, enough complaining about bigger training programs. The question you may be asking now is, “So if you don’t think I should go to a bigger program, then what should I do? I don’t want to waste my time or money! And I just don’t know if I should go to college. Shouldn’t I just start acting, and move to LA now?”

Well, getting a classic four-year college degree, from an excellent academic university is never wasting your time! In fact, when I think about it, I never ever cast an actor based on whether or not they had a degree from any kind of professional acting training program. Isn’t that sad? I also noticed that, back when I was acting professionally, no one ever cared one bit that I had both a BA degree, …

Although acting and modeling aren’t exactly the same thing, they share many similarities. And even though I’ve never had much experience working in the modeling world, other than a few modely type commercials, and a few print auditions, I still find myself oddly addicted to ANTM! Why? Well, I think it’s because it reminds me so much of the whole experience of acting professionally. Also, I am constantly impressed with the dedication Tyra Banks shows to the young women in her show. She is a compassionate and supportive teacher and role model to so many young women, and she believes in helping future models understand the truth and reality of making it in the modeling world. That, and she’s so darned BRILLIANT! I’m sure many of you reading this post will agree, that if you’re …

You can’t really call yourself a professional actor until you get headshots. Whether you’re just thinking about becoming an actor, or trying to book auditions, you’ll need a good picture of yourself. With today’s advances in digital photography, getting a good headshot is becoming easier and easier, not to mention, cheaper.

We always recommend using a professional to get your headshots taken. But if you have a friend who’s a really good photographer, there’s nothing wrong with asking them to help you out. I myself have taken great headshots for many actor friends. One of the reasons I think they were so good, is that I had been an actress myself. I knew what the agents and casting directors were looking for, and I knew how it felt to be the actor or actress on the other side of the lens, so …