How to Build an Acting Career Outside LA and New York

You booked the community theater lead, did two student films, and your acting class teacher says you’re ready for more. Then someone at a party asks the question you’ve been dreading: “So when are you moving to LA?” As if staying where you are means you’re not serious.

Here’s the thing. Plenty of actors work steadily in cities nobody writes songs about. They do regional theater, local commercials, corporate videos, and day-player roles on the shows that film nearby, and they self-tape for everything else. Their careers look different from the ones in magazine profiles, but they are careers.

The short version: treat your city as a market with its own casting offices, not a waiting room for a move. Learn who casts near you, find where local calls are posted, stack credits in the order your market offers them, sign with a legitimate local agent when you have material to show, and make your self-tape as strong as anyone’s in LA. Then build relationships, because in a small market everyone talks to everyone.

Treat your city as a market, not a waiting room

Most regions that film regularly have their own casting directors, and they know the local actors. Up-To-Date Actor’s roundup of regional casting directors makes this point market by market, from Atlanta to Chicago to New Mexico and Texas, and notes that building those relationships can open up steady bookings, even for actors who aren’t based in New York or LA.

The picture has also been shifting. In a trade-press profile, “Small Market Acting No Longer Means Small Market Roles”, New Mexico and Texas casting director Jo Edna Boldin describes the industry moving toward bigger parts for actors in smaller regions. She also observes that regional actors turn down fewer projects than actors in LA, who are more likely to pass on small parts.

That second point is your advantage. In a smaller market, the co-star role, the regional commercial, and the training video all count. Each one is footage, a credit, and a set full of people who now know you show up prepared.

So start with a map. Write down every casting office that works in your region, what they cast (film and TV, commercials, theater), and how they find actors: through agents, open calls, or a casting site. This is your real market, and it’s smaller and more knowable than you think.

Find where your market posts its work

In the big hubs, much of the work runs through agents and national casting sites. Regional markets are messier, which is good news: there are more side doors. The trick is knowing where your city posts its calls.

Start with your film commission, at both the state and city level. Some post casting calls directly. Film San Antonio, for example, runs cast and crew calls for projects filming in the Greater San Antonio Metro Area, promotes them on its social channels, and requires every listed audition to be free and open to the public. Others keep a production directory. New Jersey’s film office describes its NJ-411 directory as a listing of New Jersey businesses providing support services, crew, and talent.

Not every state directory lists actors, so read the rules before you register. Where yours does, a complete, current listing costs you nothing but an afternoon.

Then cover the rest of the map:

• Follow the film and media programs at nearby colleges, because their students need actors every semester.
• Check the audition pages of every theater within driving distance, from community houses to professional regional companies.
• Ask local commercial and corporate video producers how they cast; some hire on-camera talent directly, and others go through a local casting office.
• Set up alerts on the casting sites your local offices actually use, filtered to your region.

Our guide to finding acting auditions walks through the casting sites and how to tell a real listing from a scam. Whatever you find, log it in our free audition tracker, so after six months you can see which sources actually led to work.

Stack credits in the order your market offers them

An LA career often starts with chasing representation. A regional career usually starts by saying yes to the work in front of you and turning it into material.

A common order looks like this. Theater and student films come first, because they’re open to newcomers and give you something to put on a resume. Then local commercials, corporate and training videos, and independent features, which give you on-camera footage. Then day-player and co-star roles on productions that film in your region, which usually come through local casting offices and agents.

Don’t underestimate how much local producers need actors who can deliver. In a 2018 KUNC report on keeping film talent in Colorado, Fort Collins creative director Doug Usher said, “We constantly struggle to find local people who want to perform on camera.” In the same report, he said that when bigger productions reached the area, they often brought in talent from outside. That’s the gap a prepared local actor fills.

Treat every small job as a reel audition. Ask for the footage politely, keep track of who has it, and cut it into short clips as soon as you can. If you’re starting from zero, our guides to student films and first credits and building an acting reel with no footage cover the first steps.

Do you need an agent in a regional market?

For film, TV, and many commercials, it helps, eventually. In many markets, casting offices call agents first, so representation puts you in front of more of those sessions. But you don’t need one to get started, and you shouldn’t sign with the first person who offers.

Check legitimacy before anything else. If you’re in the union or plan to join, SAG-AFTRA’s franchised agency lookup lets you search by your Local, and the union says that, to comply with its membership rules, your agency must be on its All Franchised Agencies list. If your Local returns no results, the page tells you to contact your Local’s staff.

Then ask the questions that matter in a small market. Where do their clients book: local commercials, the shows that film here, theater, or out-of-town work through self-tape? Which casting offices do they submit to most? How do they want you to send updates? Our guides on getting an agent with no experience and the difference between an agent and a manager go deeper.

Make the self-tape your second home base

Self-tapes are what make a regional career work. Zoe Bloss, writing for the UK casting platform Spotlight in her tips for actors working outside London, calls self-taping “now a bona fide way to audition.” Her advice applies anywhere: you don’t need expensive equipment, but you do need a plan for your backdrop, lighting, and camera position.

She also suggests practicing self-tapes when there’s no audition at all, just for fun. That habit pays off when a real request lands. When the sides arrive at 6 p.m. for a tape due tomorrow, you shouldn’t be figuring out your light. Our guide to a self-tape setup on a budget covers a kit that stays ready.

The harder problem in a smaller market is often the reader. Your actor friends are at their day jobs or in rehearsal, and the sides need learning tonight. Offbook helps with that part of the prep: upload the sides, pick your role, and realistic voices read every other character and wait for your line, so you can run the scene again and again before you film. Rehearse on your laptop with the full script on a big screen, and listen to your scenes on your phone anywhere.

Once you know the lines, hide them. Offbook can hide your lines while everyone else’s stay visible, so you test yourself from the cue the way you’ll need to on camera. On the day, you’ll still want a person reading off camera; our guide on finding a self-tape reader covers where to find one in a pinch.

Build relationships, because it’s a small pond

In a regional market, the casting associate who ran your session last month might be producing a short next month, and the actor you read with might be directing a play next season. Reputations travel fast. That cuts both ways, and it’s the main reason staying put can pay off over time.

Bloss’s advice on this is practical. Reach out to other local actors and join nearby acting classes, so you have a support system and people to tape with. See the work at your local theater, and introduce yourself to filmmakers in your area. She also points to showcases held in cities around the country as a way to test new material and meet like-minded actors.

Make it systematic. Up-To-Date Actor suggests keeping a personal database of casting directors you’ve auditioned for or want to meet, and following up with updates to keep those relationships active. A simple spreadsheet is enough: name, office, what they cast, when you last auditioned, and what you sent them since. Our guide to following up with casting covers how often to stay in touch without becoming a nuisance.

And keep training where people can see you. A good scene study class is also a room of future collaborators. Bring work you’ve prepared, not work you’re hoping to get through. A piece from our monologue library or a scene from a public-domain play in our plays collection gives you material you can polish between auditions.

Be local where you live, and ready to travel

Staying in a regional market doesn’t mean you’ll never leave it. Productions often cast actors who live near the shoot, and the closest regional hub may be a few hours away. Our guide to whether to move to LA or New York explains local hire, the term that decides which jobs you can take, and why claiming to be local when you’re not can cost you the job.

For last-minute auditions in the big city, Bloss’s advice is to know the travel timetables and plan routes in advance, so a last-minute call doesn’t turn into a panic. Know how long it takes you to reach the nearest hub by car, train, or bus, and keep a little money set aside for it.

Moving can still make sense later, when the work tells you to: your agent keeps getting you to callbacks for jobs that shoot elsewhere, or you’ve outgrown the roles your market casts. The point is to move toward work you’ve already started booking, not away from a city you haven’t tried.

Your first 90 days in a regional market

Here’s the whole approach as a plan you can start this week.

1. List every casting office in your region, what it casts, and how it finds actors.
2. Find your state and city film offices, read how they post calls, and register in any directory that lists talent.
3. Follow the film programs at nearby colleges and the audition pages of every theater you can drive to.
4. Set up your self-tape corner and record one practice tape a week, even with no audition.
5. Say yes to the right small jobs, and ask for the footage from every one.
6. Join a class or a regular scene study group so you have people to read with and a place to be seen.
7. Once you have footage and a resume, research local agents, check franchise status if you’re union, and ask where their clients book.
8. Keep a casting database and send a short, real update when you have news.

None of these steps needs a moving truck. All of them make you more castable wherever you end up.

Questions actors ask

Can you have an acting career without moving to LA?

Yes. Regional markets have their own casting offices, theaters, commercial producers, and productions that film nearby, and self-tapes let you audition for work elsewhere. A regional career usually mixes local theater, commercials, corporate work, and day-player roles rather than relying on one big job.

How do actors find work in smaller markets?

Through local casting offices, state and city film commissions (some post casting calls), college film programs, theater audition pages, casting sites filtered to the region, and a local agent once you have material. Relationships often matter more than in the hubs, because the same people cast and work on many projects.

Do I need an agent in a regional market?

You can start without one: theater, student films, and some local commercials cast actors directly. For film, TV, and many commercial jobs, a legitimate local agent opens doors to casting offices. If you’re in SAG-AFTRA, check that the agency is on the union’s franchised list for your Local.

Will local casting directors take me seriously if I’ve never worked in LA or New York?

Regional casting directors cast local actors all the time; it’s much of their job. What most casting directors look for is familiar: a strong self-tape, a clear sense of your type, and a record of showing up prepared. Local credits count.

When does it make sense to move after all?

When the work points there: your agent keeps sending you to callbacks for jobs that shoot in another city, you’re booking out-of-town work that keeps requiring in-person callbacks or local-hire status, or you’ve done what your market casts. Our guide on moving to LA or New York has a checklist for that decision.