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The Spotlight Podcast
Mel Brown smiling as she talks to agent Mildrea Yuan at a Spotlight Industry Forum event.

Image credit: Joanna Nicole Photography

Tips for making your Spotlight profile the best it can be to help casting directors and project makers discover you.

If you’re new to Spotlight – or feel that your profile isn’t working for you and you’d like to improve it – this is the episode for you. We’re joined by Mel Brown – our in-house expert on helping performer members make the best of their Spotlight membership. 

Mel shares her advice on what to include on your Spotlight profile to make it the best it can be and to help increase your chances of being discovered by casting directors who are looking to fill roles in their next big project.

Headshot credit: YellowBellyPhoto

The topics we cover include:

  • Setting up your Spotlight profile
  • What to write in the ‘About Me’ section
  • What to include and leave out of showreels
  • Selecting the best pictures to represent you
  • Reaching out to casting directors and agents
  • When to add a skill to your profile
  • How to refresh your profile
  • Returning to Spotlight after a hiatus

Take a listen:

Episode Transcript

Note: This transcript has been edited to assist with readability.

Hi, Mel! Could you please tell us a bit about yourself?

I work on the Success Team at Spotlight. There are two strands to the Success Team. The talent side, which is my side, look after the young performers, the graduates, and the performers who are 18. We help them understand the value of their Spotlight membership and how to utilise their profile, which we’ll be talking about today. The other side is what we deem as enterprise, looks after casting directors and agents.

What is the purpose of a Spotlight profile, and what does it mean for you as a performer when you have one?

When you join Spotlight, the profile is the main tool of getting seen by casting directors. So populating that profile from the off is so, so valuable. I would say, first and foremost, don’t overthink things too much. I think that genuinely about the industry as well.

The profile is there to aid you. You don’t really need a performer’s website – the Spotlight profile should be doing all the talking for you. It should be something that you can include in things like Linktree on Instagram. 

Spotlight is a renowned casting platform throughout the UK and worldwide really. So when you are a member, that is a stamp of professionalism. The profile is how our industry, especially casting directors, can get to know you, your skills and your ability as a performer. 

If I’ve just signed up to Spotlight, my profile is live – what’s the first thing I need to do?

When your application has been approved, you will receive a welcome email and that’s how you set up your username and password to access Spotlight.

The first thing to do is populate that profile. The application is quite short, so there won’t be much information on there. Once you’re signed in, go through the profile step-by-step, looking at each section independently. 

Some details will stay the same forever once you’ve populated them, but there are other areas that you will need to keep an eye on. That doesn’t mean you’re going to have to sign in every day, but remember to do it monthly, maybe, and check everything is up-to-date.

When you go into the Spotlight account, you’ll be on the My Account homepage, and there’s a navigation menu on the left. Underneath that is something called ‘Update My Profile’. It’s quite self-explanatory, but the first section you should go into is the ‘Details’ section. That’s ethnicity and heritage, gender, appearance, nationality, playing age – all those sections that won’t change too frequently. Make sure that you fill them out to the best of your ability.

Everything on the profile is searchable. Casting directors have a way of finding actors through numerous search fields. So it is important to keep that populated and have information on there, because, otherwise, you may not come up in a particular search.

We’ve got to remember that casting directors will receive the project and the characters, and sometimes they have specific qualities that are required. From the off, casting directors will go into ‘Search’ and put in some key details. Hopefully, if you match those key details, you’ll come up and potentially they’ll be reaching out for availability checks or maybe even an audition straight off the bat.

Do you think it’s worth updating your Spotlight profile for the first time on a laptop or a desktop computer instead of on your smartphone?

When you’re setting up on Spotlight, take a moment, get your laptop or iPad out and actually go through things. It’s the first time you’re exploring everything that Spotlight has to offer, so definitely take that time.

Another top tip: always make sure your browsers are up-to-date. Sometimes things aren’t compatible with really old browsers. Also, sometimes clearing those cookies and cache can help as well. I know that none of us want to clear the cookies and cache, but it can help sometimes if you’re struggling to sign in.

If I have an agent, should I be expecting them to fill out most of my profile, or are there certain things I should be doing myself?

You’ve got to know who’s updating the profile. Some agents just prefer to be the ones updating the Spotlight profile. They’ll outline that from the beginning and just say, “That’s fine, leave that to us.” But most agents will be encouraging you to do the updating.

It is very important to have that conversation with the agent, because you do not want to be doubling up on work. Make sure you know, when you sign with an agent, who is actually responsible for those updates, because worst comes to worst, you both think you’re doing it and no one is.

If I’m self-represented, is there anything I should be putting on my profile that someone with an agent might not be?

To be honest with you, it’s just making sure that you keep on top of everything. 

In terms of actually being self-repped, there’s not too much of a difference with being represented by an agent when it comes to the profile. You just want to make sure everything is populated and kept up to date, and at least you know you are the one responsible for it.

One top tip for self-repped performers is that if there’s something a character you’re self-submitting yourself for really has highlighted in a brief, there’s a little description box you can add notes in. You can use it to say, “Please see this clip or this audio clip of this particular accent,” or something. 

Do you have any tips for showreels or other media that might get added to a Spotlight profile?

In the media section on Spotlight, you get 20 minutes of video and 20 minutes of audio. I would say it’s fundamental to really think about that section, because we are getting more and more feedback from casting directors that, even before they call people in for a self-tape or an in-person audition, they are looking at this material. Casting directors want to get a feel of what you’re capable of, and that’s where the media section can come into play.

Don’t be nervous around the word ‘showreel’. If you are lucky enough to have work and are able to edit together a few scenes from different professional jobs, then that’s great. Caveat that with your strongest scene at the beginning. Casting directors don’t have loads of time, so I can’t guarantee that they will always watch your whole showreel. You want to grab them straight from the off.

I also see wonderful pieces of acting which are very atmospheric or very emotive and don’t actually have much speaking. Obviously that’s a great context if you know the piece and you’re watching the full thing. However, that can’t really help in the actual showreel because casting directors want to know what you sound like as well. It is about seeing you visually and hearing you.

If you’re quite a new member on Spotlight, and maybe haven’t got the professional experience that other actors have, it is really good to think about recording a piece of you acting and getting it on there. We normally recommend going more for a dualogue style, so get a reader to read off to the side and perform with you.

If you are self-repped, getting some material on there of you acting is a really, really important thing. If you are an international performer, it’s so important to have some of you acting in your native language. I think we’re very fortunate to have a lot of casting directors using the site who are international. Although the platform is predominantly English speaking, if you do have another language that you’re native in, definitely get some footage of you acting. Subtitled, preferably, so it’s easier for us to follow.

If you’ve got key skills – maybe presenting, maybe you’re an actor-musician, gymnastics, if you’re really strong at something – a little bit of video of you doing that is really helpful. But remember to put quality over quantity. That might be the first and only impression the casting director gets to view. So if you are unsure and not really feeling comfortable with it, that’s a sign to maybe not have it on your Spotlight profile.

When you edit a video you can choose the thumbnail. The amount of times people rest a thumbnail on another actor in a scene… Make sure the thumbnail is of you because you want that focus to be on you from the off. That is the same sometimes with maybe doing a dance piece – people put a few people in the dance, and then you’re not really sure who you’re looking at. 

Fundamentally, this profile is about you and showing off your skills. You don’t want a casting director to be going, “Ooh, that other person is really good.” You just want them to be paying attention to you.

Another vital piece of media that a Spotlight profile needs is photos. What sorts of photos should I be uploading?

Headshots. We have some amazing content around headshots. To join Spotlight, you will have uploaded a professional headshot to the application. What you need to do next is go in and add a few more on your profile. We recommend between four and six headshots on the profile with varying expressions.

A lot of the time, I’ll look at really wonderful profiles and the headshots will be really strong, but it’s the same expression five times in just different outfits. So be really careful when you are having that session that you are thinking more about expression rather than anything else. You may want one that’s smiley, cheeky, maybe sassy, grumpy, angry – you want to have that variety. 

That’s so crucial because the headshot is the first thing a casting director sees, whether you are being searched or whether you are appearing via a job and they’re looking at a submission from an agent or from you as self-represented.

We are still very traditional in the way that headshots are. I think America is expanding more with torso headshots and things like that. But for how Spotlight works, and the framing of how that headshot goes over to a casting director, you want to stick with head and shoulders. It is just the best way for you to be visibly seen.

I’m not the biggest fan of stills and things like that. Those kinds of things are great to share, but probably more in a social media capacity. You don’t really need to give a nod to productions and hair and make-up that you’ve had in previous projects. That’s the job of the costume, the make-up artist, the hair and wig department – they’ll be making you into that character. The casting director just wants to see the blank canvas. They want to see your ability as an actor.

Full-length shots can be beneficial, especially with commercials. So it might be worth having one of them up there, but really stick with between four and six headshots on the profile from your most recent headshot session. Don’t be tempted to dabble with headshots from previous sessions because casting directors will look at a profile and go, “Okay, that’s what they look like.” And then they’ll see one that looks slightly different and wonder, “Who actually is going to be called into the room or who am I going to see on the self-tape?” You never want the casting director to be second-guessing themselves.

Is it a good idea to link to your social media and personal websites on your Spotlight profile?

Essentially, as a performer, you are a business. You want to make sure that you are being seen as best as you possibly can. I would say performer websites really aren’t that necessary unless you’ve got other specific skills, like being a writer or director. Realistically, the Spotlight profile should be doing the talking for you in terms of an acting profile. It should have everything on there. So if you’re writing to people in the industry, linking to that Spotlight profile is enough. You don’t need to be sending other attachments.

The actual profile should be your acting CV. It should be your performer website. Social media is slightly different. It can play a part in advertising and pushing you forward for things, but I would be more looking to put your Spotlight link on there and to make sure that it’s accessible to people in the industry.

If you are sharing the link on social media platforms, be aware that it’s more public. One of the key things that we do have on Spotlight is that certain fields can be hidden from the public profile. For example, ethnicity and heritage, gender and disability – they’re searchable for a casting director who’s signed into their Spotlight account, but if you’ve chosen not to display that information publicly, that wouldn’t be on a public profile.

This industry is about feeling comfortable within yourself. There’s no stipulation for you to be doing something that makes you feel uncomfortable or sharing information that you don’t want to. My team is all about empowering the actors and giving you more of a voice and a feeling that you are the ones in control. I know that doesn’t feel like it sometimes, but we just want to make sure that you are aware that there’s a lot of outside noise in this industry. You can get a lot of opinions and be listening to a lot of chatter. Tuning that chatter out and just listening to what you feel is right for your career is fundamental.

The ‘About Me’ section is one of the free text sections on your Spotlight profile. You could put anything in there, so how do you even begin to decide what to share?

I think ‘About Me’ is by far the section that I get the most questions on, because it’s open to interpretation and that scares everyone.

It used to be called ‘Currently Appearing’, so that’s helpful to keep in mind. If there is anything that you are currently appearing in, make that clear. For example, ‘I’m doing a one-woman show at the King’s Head Theatre’ and include a link for me if I wanted to book a ticket to see it. 

If you haven’t provided that information, the reality is you’ve lost that person – they’re not going on another tab, searching it and looking for the right thing. That goes again for if you are in a film, on television – where can that be found? All that information is really valuable. 

We’d probably say the ‘About Me’ section should be in third person. I think that makes everyone feel a bit more comfortable. Just talk and highlight any specific skills that you think the casting directors should be aware of. Yes, you’ve got the Skills section, but if you’ve got a native language that you speak or there’s specific skills, like you used to be an international diver or you’re a really strong skier or whatever, just reiterate that and it’s a chance to showcase your personality a bit.

You don’t need to say the cliche thing of, ‘I’m a really strong actor and I’ve got a good ear for…’ Predominantly, the casting directors will know that. They want to know if there’s anything else that is a little bit intriguing about you, and are really interested in who you are and what makes you you.

A lot of the time we focus on the acting and getting a role, which is obviously a fundamental part. But also, if you are getting onto a production, they want to know who they’d be working with for that period of time. So give them a hint of the stuff you’re interested in or the skills that you have. It just gives that added dimension to who you are as an individual.

How good do I need to be at a skill to add it?

It’s an interesting question. You want to showcase that you are able to do that skill, but you don’t want to just add everything. My rule of thumb is if we were in an audition, on set or on stage today, and I asked you to do whatever skill it might be, would you go, “Yeah, Mel, I can do that. Let’s go.” 

If you need to put in a bit of work to do that, then I’d say leave that skill off. You just want to make sure that if you have listed something, you feel comfortable when asked to demonstrate that skill.

A few top tips for the Skills section: 

  • A lot of people miss out their native accent and dialect and native language. 
  • A lot of people who are English-speaking just presume that everyone will know that their native language is English. Never presume anything. 
  • Add things like a driving licence.
  • Skills come in handy when it comes to commercials as well. A lot of the time, commercials will be asking for really strange skills. 
  • The Skills section is an Elasticsearch, so start typing and you will hopefully find the skill that you’re looking for. 
  • If a skill you’re looking for isn’t there for any reason, email performer.success@spotlight.com. We are regularly adding to Skills if we feel something is missing.

One other thing to highlight is the skilled and highly skilled. Most of the time you will be labelling things as skilled. Highly skilled really goes for music and dance and things that you are grade five or above in, or if you’ve been in a county or international level of sports.

Some people don’t want to be thinking of musical theatre, but have really strong singing voices. Just be a little careful there because we are seeing more productions, like Wicked, that cross over that do require skills like that. 

You can add and take away skills. Say you are going for something that requires a bit of singing and dance, but that’s not something you predominantly want to be auditioning for. You can pop those skills up for two or three weeks and then take that information off. It’s flexible.

Is there anything else that you should be updating regularly?

Adding credits is an important one. A lot of the time it is best to only add once it’s filmed. Some people do give a nod to it during filming, but as we know, things can be delayed. Even if you do film a scene and it’s not in the final edit, that is still a credit. You’ve still done it and filmed it so it should be on there.

Make sure to populate the credits as much as possible. Production company and director are optional, but they’re such important information to add. Say a casting director is working with a particular director, they can search that director and see actors who have worked with them previously.

What is the most searched field by casting professionals?

To be honest with you, it’s probably stuff that you would think logically about. Things like native accents, native language, playing age, ethnicity and heritage, appearance – those kinds of things are searched very frequently because they normally fall in the remit of a particular character.

Those initial searches are a lot more utilised nowadays and becoming more and more popular as our performers make sure that their profiles are up-to-date and really utilised. If the casting directors are constantly finding a profile and it’s not up-to-date and it’s not there, then they’re just going to get disinterested and probably put the job out as a brief. Whereas if you all continue to keep your profiles up to date and shiny and fresh, then they’re excited to be searching.

If a member has a hiatus and they come back to Spotlight, do they need to add anything to explain that hiatus?

I think we fixate a lot on how much work we’ve done every year. Casting directors are not thinking that. They’re thinking are you the right person for the role.

But the ‘About Me’ section is there if you want to lean into and explain maybe why you’ve taken five years away from the industry. There are so many reasons why you might go off and do other things for a period of time and then come back. The casting directors are not as worried about those kinds of things as performers think they are. You never have to feel in this industry that you’ve got to justify anything. 

The only thing I would really be thinking about is if you have up-to-date headshots and media, because that’s the area that they’ll be going to straight away to see what you look like. I would go through the whole profile to make sure that you’ve got everything there. You never know what you added last time and left there.

A great thing about Spotlight is your profile isn’t deleted. We have members come back to us after a period of time being like, “Is everything gone?” No, it’s as you left it. But, realistically, you should go through every section again like you are new and just make sure that all the information on there is correct.

To what extent should actors consider their Spotlight profile their acting CV?

If you are utilising it to write to casting directors or agents, all you need to provide is the Spotlight link because everything should be on there. It’s a way to just keep all the information condensed and in one place. And, actually, if you send casting directors the link, they’ll click on it.

Sometimes you’ll hear this terminology of shortlist, so you might not be right for the role now, but they might be interested in a specific thing on your profile, so they might save it for a later date to look at for another project. 

The worst thing that people can do is add a lot of attachments to emails when you email a casting director or agent because it takes up space. They don’t have the time to look at that kind of stuff. All they want is the link to click on.

The only times that you want to think outside the box is maybe if you are in the industry and have got another string to your bow. You want to make sure you’ve got information on that. But when it comes to acting, Spotlight should have everything covered.

What is a good way for performers to reach out to casting professionals?

It is important to write to casting directors. Their job is to find actors and they are always interested to hear from you. When you’re writing, keep it clear and concise. If you know that they are doing a particular project that you might be right for, that is a potential time to reach out to them. Same if you’ve got something that you are in that’s coming out, whether that be film, television or theatre. Write to them if there’s something to tell them.

They might not always get back to you, but they are always looking through those emails and Spotlight profiles. You want to make sure that you’re on people’s radars. If you have worked with people previously, again, reach out and say, “This is my profile. Please keep it for if there’s anything that I might be right for in the future.”

My top piece of advice is to keep a spreadsheet of everyone that you are contacting. The worst thing is to reach out and then a month later reach out again. Keep a period of time between that kind of communication because constantly bombarding them is not something they require. 

You don’t want to be reaching out in terms of DMing them or phoning. Email them. They might be on their lunch break, they can go through a few emails. It’s easier to pick up when they have a moment, and you know that email will be in their inbox for when they do have a bit of time to look.

Try and do your research. I’m going to highlight something that we’ve been working on, which is an index of content we’ve done with casting directors, like articles, podcasts, videos, content. What you want to do when you’re writing to that casting director is give a little connection, show that you’ve got an interest. If you’re just writing and saying, “This is me.” They’re like, “Okay. Do you know what I cast? Do you know what work I’ve done? Have you actually taken an interest in who I am as a casting director?” So the Casting Director Index can act as a cheat sheet for you where you can go through and find all this amazing content that’s on Spotlight. It’s under ‘Support’.

How should you approach an agent?

With the agents, it’s about making sure that you’ve done your research. They can sniff out if you’ve sent 20 emails to everyone.

Normally, on their website, they will have a list of agents or names of the team. Address your email to them. Address the first bit as a little bit of research – why you’re writing to this agency, what you think works, why it would be a good fit for you both. Then the second paragraph is talking about yourself, which I know is never very easy, but you’ve got to talk up your skills and your qualities and what you’d bring to the table. Then your Spotlight link and then your contact details.

That’s as simple as it needs to be. Make sure it’s very clear and concise and to the point. If your profile is up-to-date and strong, that’s all that needs to be included. You don’t need to send a flurry of other information.

Finally, do you have any advice for performers who feel like they’re not getting auditions or self-tape requests? How can they refresh their Spotlight profile?

In this industry, a lot of the time it goes in peaks and troughs. You never know exactly what’s casting at one time, what roles are going on. There’s ups and downs, and that can be frustrating, but just remember: it might just be a quieter period where your particular kind of individual just isn’t getting as many roles as there has been previously.

In those kind of periods, be subjective about those headshots and that media on your profile, because if something isn’t connecting, it tends to be with those two sections. You’re probably screaming to me, “Mel, that’s so obvious,” but it is hard to take an objective view on something. Maybe record something and add a piece that shows you in a bit of a different light. Getting different headshot can be something that propels the profile forward also.

There’s also those periods of time when it is just quieter, so focus on improving your skills and other things. Accents are really helpful. Look around and see if there are places you can go to, other courses that you can take. We do a lot of events here at Spotlight which are a taster into certain techniques or accents. Maybe go on and do further research from that into something that you’ve been interested in or inspired by from an event. There’s lots of acting techniques out there that you might investigate further, and it just keeps you occupied and not too fixated on why the phone’s not ringing.

There is also something we offer which is called Profile Clinics. It gives you a chance to go and have a little look at members’ profiles. When you sign up, you can opt to have your profile looked at, or you can just sit in the background and just see how other people have set things up. It’s quite interesting for the ‘About Me’ section and how that’s been used. It can give you a little bit of inspiration or something that you haven’t thought of that someone else has populated on there.

Profile Clinics have been running for a few months now, and they’re definitely something to check out under the Events section on Spotlight. It gives you that little bit of guidance of things that you can improve on your profile.

The spaces are limited. It tends to be a group of about 60, 70 people on there. If you don’t get a space one month, join the waitlist. When we add new ones, I always, I email the waitlist to say new clinics are up, so you get a heads-up before they go on general sale as well. You may be able to get a last-minute ticket as well. 

If there is anything that you want to follow up on, we have live chats or you can drop my team a question to performer.success@spotlight.com. We’ll be happy to guide you with any information that might help.