Intro
With my second year of training almost coming to an end, I’ve realised how important it is to be equipped with everything I’m going to need going into the industry, I’ve started to switch from my student way of thinking into my professional actor mindset by noting my strengths within skills classes and how I can highlight them for my third year season, whilst also starting to network to build up my industry connections as I get ready to start my final year of drama school. Throughout this portfolio my research into what I specifically need as an upcoming actor and what I can do to have the best starting point possible will be explored.
Headshots
One of the first things I thought about for third year were my headshots, I know that my look means I will be getting cast as younger roles so I want headshots that will illuminate this as well as my own personality and features. I have quite light features/blonde hair so I want headshots that bring those out rather than over power them. I know brighter tones will highlight my youthful casting type and reflect my energy as quite a warm and energetic person. However, I also know that darker tones indicate dramatic characters and as someone who would like to do a lot of Shakespeare, I was initially conflicted in what to go for.Being from Liverpool, I started by looking for photographers who are more Northern, I found a newer company called(thespianphotographer ,2026)and looked at their current portfolio of headshots, they have a range of backgrounds including pinks and greens which I liked(appendix 1), they offer student discounts and £15 off if you refer a friend, so I am definitely looking at them as an option. I found it quite difficult to find Northern based photographers as I know a lot of the well-known headshot companies are based down south. I decided to look into some London companies too. I liked Andy Brown, I feel like the headshots are quite striking and would be beneficial for heading towards the Shakespeare direction but the prices are high and on top of getting transport to London I’m not sure it would be financially the best option for me. I know the company (Akta, 2026) do a pay what you can scheme and after looking at their repertoire of headshots they seem to match my bright colours and vibrant photograph energy, also in terms of clothing people on their website are wearing colours like yellow(appendix 2), a colour I’m considering for clothing. Because of this I have applied for their pay what you can scheme, which will mean I’ll be paying £80 and as I’ll have to travel to London it means buying a train ticket will be much more affordable due to the lower headshot price. I looked into the current third year to see what headshots stood out to me (leedsconservatiore,2026). I really liked Cora’s as I feel we have similar hair and features and I liked how the bright green and blue backgrounds brought out her eyes; she also wore pink in one of hers which is a colour I have been leaning towards(appendix 3). Therefore I’m considering Akta; Cora went with this company and after looking at their social media I feel as if these photographs will sell me the best, even though I’m very interested in doing Shakespeare, I know both my screen and theatre roles will be quite young for a while so maybe later in my career I’ll go for the darker look but thinking about getting work and where I am currently, brighter headshots are the way to go. Cora also does have a more serious picture in her headshot repertoire and so I know with Akta I can be versatile, also for hairstyle if I wear my hair down for the more striking shots and up in pigtails to show playing age. Still keeping Liverpool companies in mind such as thespian photographer if I am unable to get to London.
Appendix 1, 2, 3
Acting CV
For my acting CV I wanted a neat and easily readable layout, this will be the first impression of me most agents and casting directors get so I want it to showcase as much as possible. I’m going to set up a student spotlight page for third year where I will display my cv and headshots for casting directors.
I started with black writing, white background so that my headshot stands out, I looked up actors cvs to get a feel for what the industry standard is(appendix 4). I like the layout of the headshot on the right hand side top but then add initial information such as playing age etc next to it, into the skills underneath so there is room for more detail. I’m really keen to put my dancing and singing qualifications on my cv as I’m interested in auditioning for musicals and I think making casting directors aware of these skills helps actors stand out among other auditionees. I’ll definitely continue to add to my skills list and I’m looking forward to third year workshops influencing the skills I would like to develop or get a qualification for as I start out in the industry.
Appendix 1
Networking and Industry Connections
Networking in the industry is something I have been working on, I realised at the start of second year that the connections I’ve previously made I haven’t been keeping up with so I decided to change this. I want to make sure I have connections in Liverpool; that’s where I’m from and I will likely be moving back after graduation. I’m signed up to the everyman/playhouse YEP account where I’m able to purchase £5 tickets, I went to see waiting for Godot I realised a friend I had worked with in Shakespeare North works in the playhouse, we reconnected and he’s set up a theatre company (appendix 5) and will let me know when they are auditioning. To further push myself I plan to email Luke Barnes who I connected with during my Lipa foundation course, I’ve used his work before and having him as a connection would be so valuable starting out in the scouse acting scene, I plan to invite him to my third year shows/ask his advice on what Northern agents I should invite. To develop my research further I decided to delve into the backgrounds of current scouse actors. James Nelson Joyce was recently in this city is ours, which is the kind of tv I would like to be involved in. He has connections with link entertainment who are a management/production company, I followed them across social medias. I quickly figured out that many people from link entertainment have crossovers with Stephen Graham so I dug deeper into his production company, Matriarch Productions. I already kept myself updated with this company but I’m now signed up to their mailing list in hopes that it will connect me with the screen acting scene in Merseyside as I feel I don’t have as many connections in the film industry as I do in the scouse theatre scene.They have a contact us section on their website where you can add your contact details and a file (appendix 6), I am going to add my show reel and acting cv to this as soon as I receive them in third year as I know Stephen Graham has given many opportunities to scouse actors. I also did an audition for the Royal Court in Liverpool, from this I receive emails for workshops and scratch nights etc(appendix 7) which I am going to utilise when I am freshly out of third year to get my name and work out there as quickly as possible. Going forward I would like to expand my connections in Leeds, I made sure to keep in touch with directors I’ve worked with at the conservatoire such as Jess Millward on social media. I also like to go and see as much graduate work as possible and recently attended the finding our feet podcast- theatre in development event where I got to talk to graduates. I plan to try and be apart of an MA production over summer to expand my connections with upcoming directors.
Appendix 5, 6 ,7
Agents
In terms of agents, I started by looking at who actors I am influenced by are signed with. I started with Jodie Comer as I recently went to see the tour of Prima Facie at the Playhouse Theatre in Liverpool, where I bought the script and did some research into who she is signed with. With Jodie being a scouse performer who does both film and theatre, my aspirations in the long run as an actor line up with the work she is currently doing. I quickly figured out she was signed with (independent talent agency,2026) and her agent is Jane Epstein, who is also Stephen Grahams agent. I would like to invite independent but I know they are quite high profile so I looked into who Stephen Graham has previously been signed with. Previously he had been signed with Craig Sharpiro of (Creative Artists Agency,2026) who are the world’s leading entertainment agency. So I decided since I am looking at a lot is scouse actors who have quite big agents I would look into newer, smaller agencies coming up in Liverpool; Hamilton management has around 100 actors on their books and I like how they specify they “represent featured artists” (Palmer, 2025) so no extra work just pure full-time acting jobs, which means they are able to focus more on their actors to get them specific work. I’m also interested in RbA Management especially since they have actors who do puppeteering work which is something I’m really interested in getting into in the future, they only currently have 16 actors on their books and they have specified they are “looking for new talent” (Palmer, 2025) which is promising if I’m going to be a drama school graduate. Jessie Buckley is the type of actor I aspire to be like because she has done musicals such as Cabaret and also been in films like Hamnet, which links to the Shakespearean side of work I’m interested in, her agency is (United Agents,2026) and she is with Lindy King, I’d quite like to invite an agent from United Agents as they have voiceover agents within their agency too. However, I know some higher end agents I have listed are mostly based in London and America so I’m also looking for closer options. For the more comedy and writing side I looked into Ruth Jones, whose work on Gavin and Stacey is one of my favourite creative pieces ever, she is with Curtis Brown, when looking at the Curtis Brown website I noticed they have another agency called (Markham Froggart and Irwin,2026) who seem to have a good mix of more upcoming actors and established ones, such as Bella Maclean who has done Spring Awakening and has recently been in Rivals on Disney Plus, she went to Guildhall and so has had drama school training and so I think inviting an agent from this agency could be a good initial spring board into the industry.
Summative Statement
One of the projects that has had the biggest impact on me in second year so far was our American Project. I love accents and see them as a strength of mine and so getting to do a Southern American accent for a whole play taught me a lot, I learned that clarity and projection have to be pushed further than usual and therefore took this forward into my Shakespeare block. I would like to learn as many accents as possible as I found that during my accent training at the Conservatoire I’ve really enjoyed learning them and found I can do a lot more than I realised, going into third year, I’d like to add a lot of accents to my spotlight profile to highlight to casting directors that my voice is quite versatile and I’m not just confined to my scouse accent. I’m going to add, American, Southern American, RP and Scottish to my acting cv as those are the ones jess our accent teacher said she would sign me off for if we were in the industry. Over the summer I plan to work on my Irish accent, this is my weakest and now having had accent lessons and having sustained an accent for a whole project I would like to use my training to expand my accent skills list for spotlight. Also, because we had an outside director, being able to audition for my role in this project in front of a panel, gave me an insight into what theatre auditions will be like in the industry and gave me confidence for the future third years auditions and being in front of casting directors. I applied Uta Hagen techniques I had learnt with Alex Palmer, which are now part of my acting process for every character. Performing in traverse I wanted to establish place. I’ve found that the fourth side helps me see the world of the play, I had a scene in the woods where I took what Uta Hagen said in Respect for Acting “in an outdoor scene, if you are asked to refer to a tree or hill or house or steeple or cloud placed imaginatively out front, and if you have particularized it and anchored it visually to an exit sign or door or a pillar it becomes easy to look at” (Uta Hagen, 2008)allowing Eva’s senses in the woods to become real. Eva is one of the most graphic parts I have ever played, playing Eva not only helped me figure out part of my casting type is playing younger (Eva is 14) but also highlighted I’m able to handle triggering material. Eva’s raped at the end of the play so with my director and scene partner we went through a lot of intimacy rehearsals and techniques helping us create a safe environment. Because of this I now feel a lot more confident in my own process as an actor unwinding from a role and making sure my scene partners/myself feel safe. This project showed me that I’m ready to take on mature themes. I felt that shift from student to actor, its made me feel a lot more confident going into third year, especially for third year plays, which I know will be more full on and I now know I can handle any intimacy or content that may be challenging.
Another part of second year that was beneficial for me was the Shakespeare project. A goal in my career is to be in Shakespeare plays. Since watching a production of As You Like It by Northern Broadsides in 2022, I’ve wanted to be a part of this company, I love how the artistic director Laurie Sansom celebrates “the diversity of Northern identity” (Northern Broadsides, 2026), so going into this block I really wanted to do well. Upon reflection, I put far too much pressure on myself for this project and it caused me to keep hitting a wall. Through this I learnt that being a perfectionist does not serve you as an actor. Honestly, I think the movement side of this project was one of the biggest break throughs in my training. Throughout my years of training, I’ve always thought movement to be my weakest out of the three (acting, voice, movement). However having Shakespearean movement classes alongside acting classes meant that whenever I got stuck, I would be able to explore this in movement; I was able to find so much more character freedom. I let myself feel what it would be like to be disguised as a male for Viola and what a more girly but feisty character of Hero would have danced like in an Elizabethan ball, this effected my voice and my body language and all in all my movement score ended up being my highest score from that project, proving to me that going into third year I can use movement at the start of my process to develop a character and to not shy away from it just because I don’t think I’m a strong mover. Because of this, I did a Shakespeare monologue for my Leeds playhouse mock audition and received positive feedback on my embodiment of the character, moving into third year auditions I’d like to keep developing movement embodiment to show I can become a character in the audition room.
In terms of skills, screen classes have been massive in my understanding of the industry, I’ve learnt what will be expected of me on a film/tv set. I’ve never been on a film set before so I was apprehensive as I know a lot of actors first jobs in the industry tend to be on screen. This year I’ve learnt the importance of eyelines, continuity, advert auditions and hitting your mark. This has filled me with a lot more confidence for the end of third year when I begin to audition and I now would like to be a screen actor as well even though I’ve always viewed myself as more theatre.
Bio
After reading some current third years bios (appendix 8), I got a sense that bios should highlight the kind of work that you want to explore as an actor, whilst also using adjectives to describe the personality you bring to a rehearsal room, I listed Shakespeare characters because I wanted to make my passion for Shakespeare known to casting directors. I struggled viewing myself through a directors lense so decided to think about feedback and tutorials I have had from my tutors and what makes me unique as an actor e.g versatility in both comedy and drama. I decided to draft some of around 150 words(appendix 9) keeping it short to add ticket links but also indicate the personal brand I am going for, looking through spotlight, I realised that writing in third person is the most professional so this was my final draft so far(appendix 10).
Appendix 8,9,10
Conclusion
My second year at the conservatoire has been pivotal for viewing myself as an actor going into the industry rather than a drama school student. I feel a lot more confident in the skills I should utilise to sell myself to agents and casting directors. I’ve begun to make industry connections and develop relationships that I would like to continue as I find my way as an acting graduate. I now feel like I have an understanding of what to look for in agents when I begin my third-year season and feel more confident in going to auditions both screen and theatre. I’m still nervous to finish my training as I know it means figuring out how to navigate working as an actor but I’m so excited to see what opportunities I can give myself. I plan to keep honing my craft by working on past skills such as my dancing and singing to make sure I open as many windows as possible and ultimately use the skills I have trained in to build my brand.
Bibliography
https://www.instagram.com/thespianphotographer?igsh=MTE1ZXR1ZG0xNGg1bg==
https://www.aktalondon.com/service-page/akta-headshots-1
United Agents – Trusted representation for exceptional talent
Home – Markham, Froggatt & Irwin
Palmer, B. (2025). The Best Talent Agencies in Liverpool. [online] Backstage.com. Available at: https://www.backstage.com/uk/magazine/article/the-best-talent-agencies-in-liverpool-78825/. (accessed 3/4/26)
Uta Hagen (2008). Respect for Acting. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons. (accessed 7/4/26)
Northern Broadsides. (2026). Northern Broadsides – History, Ethos, Awards and Style. [online] Available at: https://www.northern-broadsides.co.uk/about-us/. (accessed 7/4/26)
