The Acting Business Boot Camp Podcast

About Mark:

Mark Bennington is an American actor, photographer, drummer, and author. After graduating from Mike Nichols's New Actors Workshop in NYC, Mark worked in theater for 10 years, with such directors as Sir Trevor Nunn, Paul Sills, Charles Marowitz, and Diane Paulus. 

Mark also did the guest-star grind in LA before picking up the camera in 2004, which quickly morphed into him becoming one of the 'Top 10' headshot photographers in the country. He later added both advertising and documentary portraiture to his repertoire with his work being published in The Atlantic, The Huffington Post, UpWorthy, CNN, PDN, GQ India, Varity, Forbes, The Los Angeles Times and many more. Mark authored the acclaimed photography book Living the Dream: The Life of the 'Bollywood' Actor (HarperCollins) and in 2016 his photography project America 2.0 about Muslim youth in NYC received worldwide recognition and was exhibited at major galleries in Jerusalem, Rome, Tokyo, New...

About Andy:

Specializing in voice-over, Andy Roth is one of New York’s busiest casting directors with a career that has spanned over two decades.  After several years as the in-house casting director for one of the country’s top commercial talent agencies, Cunningham Escott Slevin & Doherty (CESD), where he did the voice casting for over a thousand projects for animation, commercial, television, film, video games and more, he started his own company and has since been working with many of the biggest advertising agencies, casting houses and production companies in the world.  He has cast shows for such high profile companies as Discovery Kids and Netflix and worked on projects for known brands including, Spotify, Oculus, Target, Calvin Klein, Geico, Kraft, Coca Cola and many more. His handiwork can be seen on just about any network, cable channel, video game system, and all over the Internet.

As a voice director, he’s directed shows for major...

Joel Steingold is known for his work on HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER, HAWAII FIVE-0, and SHAMELESS.

You can see him in numerous other Films and TV shows both on camera and as a VoiceOver actor.

Catch him currently in THE CHI.

Be an asset to the environment that you’re working in.

What are you doing daily, weekly, monthly, to enhance your career?

"Work begets work."

Specialize in the slow game

Don’t worry about the money initially.

About Eric:

Eric Nelsen is a multiple Emmy Award winning and Tony Award nominated American actor and producer. He is best known for his work as an actor in Hulu's revival of All My Children playing AJ Chandler, and most recently, his recurring role in season 4 of Showtime's hit drama The Affair. 

On stage, Nelsen portrayed Brett Sampson in the original Broadway production of 13, and starred in The Good Mother, produced by The New Group. He has appeared in over 30 television series, including The Blacklist, Girls, The Following, NCIS, Blue Bloods, and iCarly.  Nelsen has also appeared in the Universal Pictures film A Walk Among the Tombstones opposite Academy Award nominee Liam Neeson and Coming Through the Rye opposite Academy Award winner Chris Cooper.

In 2018, Nelsen most recently won a ...

About Mark:

Mark Ivanir has been working as a professional film and television actor in Los Angeles since 2001. His first major film role was in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 Oscar-winning epic SCHINDLER’S LIST. He rejoined with Spielberg twice, first for a cameo appearance in Terminal, then again for his much anticipated Tintin. A pivotal role in Robert Deniro’s 2006 film, The Good Shepherd, landed Mark a role in Barry Levinson’s What Just Happened, this time acting alongside Deniro. Currently, Ivanir awaits the release of four studio features: Johny English Reborn (starring Rowan Atkinson), Everybody Loves Whales (staring Drew Barrymore, Kristen Bell, John Krassinsky), A Late Quartet (co starring Philip Seymor Hoffman, Catherine Keener and Christopher Walken) and 360 (co starring Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law, Rachel Weitz and Ben Foster). He has booked over 35 Guest Star and Guest Lead roles on television shows such as: 24, Monk, CSI NY, Law and Order, Fringe, CSI...

About Ed:

Ed Lewis is a Voice Director for Video Games, Animation, Audiobooks, Commercials, Documentaries, Promos and for pretty much anything else you want him for. Ed’s extensive experience casting Film, Television and Theatre for ten years, paired with his actor training from the University of Michigan give him a unique perspective on how to approach Voice Over projects. He treats his work as a VO Director exactly the same as his time directing auditions for The Wire, Chappelle’s Show, 24 and others.

Ed’s experience working in casting with amazing directors like David Simon, David Koepp, David Esbjorson and all other sorts of Davids has taught him how to direct projects from children’s animation to first-person shooters. Communicating with actors can be a challenge, but Ed has the vocabulary, insight, experience and knowledge to communicate the client's vision and to make the recording sessions productive with even the most difficult and complex...

About Maria:

Maria Dizzia currently teaches an ongoing scene study class at The Freeman Studio in NYC. She has taught both Public Speaking and Acting at the University of California at San Diego as well as master classes at Wheaton College, Penghao Theater in Beijing and the Sichuan People's Art Theater in Chengdu, China. She was a Beinecke Fellow at Yale School of Drama and a 2011 recipient of the Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowship.

Broadway credits include: In The Next Room by Sarah Ruhl (Tony nomination Featured Actress; Lincoln Center). Recent theater credits include If I Forget by Steven Levenson (Roundabount Theater Company),  Belleville by Amy Herzog (Drama Desk Nomination; New York Theater Workshop, Yale Rep), Annie Baker's Uncle Vanya (Soho Rep), Drunken City by Adam Bock (Playwrights Horizons), and Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl (Second Stage, Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep). Outside of the United States,...

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How David got into casting.

The only thing you can control is the work that you do in the room.

When you need a surgeon, you want someone who knows anatomy. When you need an actor you need someone who knows the anatomy of a scene. Acting is a craft and you have to learn your craft.

The Three Jobs of an Actor:

1. Becoming the best actor you can be
2. Learning the business
3. Maintaining your health and your mental health

What makes a great commercial audition:

• An authenticity
• A point of view that is specific and personal
• A willingness to play
• Not bring a fixed point of view into the room

Auditions are performances

Auditions are not opportunities to sort of kinda maybe get it right…

If you come into the room and give me nothing, the Casting Director has nothing to work with

Don’t be afraid to make choices

There is no right choice, there is no wrong choice, there is just your choice.

Commercial acting is how much you can be yourself in front...

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Malissa’s Motto, “One foot in front of the other.”

In this episode Malissa and I talk about:

Why you MUST invest in a self-tape setup.

What it means to be a bicoastal manager.

What she looks for when looking for new talent.

What a pitch deck is for actors looking for representation.

The importance of following up.

Your resume and skills should be honest.

Qualities of her favorite clients:

• Wow factor in self tapes
• Paying attention to instructions
• Positive energy
• Gratitude
• Follow directions

What Melissa wants actors to know but doesn’t have time to tell them:

• Know you as the actor has a business and work side to it
• Make the chart
• Know who you saw and what they called you in for
• Send thank you’s to casting directors after an audition
• Coaching and classes
• Keeping your instrument tuned

Sign up for the free webinar HERE

The Language of the Agents and the Casting Director is spoken in: 

1. Your Resume
2. Your Pictures
   • Telling agents and Casting Directors you are not green.
3. Have a good follow-up, how, when and what you say in your follow-up.
4. Your Demo Reel, how it’s edited, where is shown, what you put on it. 
5. Website— always put your direct contact info, even if you have an agent.

The outline of a resume: If you put so much stuff on it that it’s hard to read, it’s going to get deleted or discarded and you don’t want that!

The Letterhead:

• Your name
• Your union affiliation
• Cell Phone
• Email
• Website
• Social Media Handles

Your stats:

• Hair and the eyes
• Your height and weight (or size)
• Vocal Range (if you are a singer)

The Film Section

• 3 columns only
• Any info you want me to know with an asterisk (ie: *scene with Tracy Morgan)
• The role you played
• Production Company
• Director’s name underneath that

Television/ New Media

• 3...