If you are receiving training at one of the drama colleges, a great way to gain experience of the film and television business – and to earn yourself some extra cash – is to put yourself forward for extras work, particularly during the long summer break.

The discipline for extras work is very different from what you may be learning in your training, but there is still plenty to learn that will be useful to your future onstage. As a background artiste you may not be expected to ‘perform’ in the conventional sense. On the other hand, it very often happens on set that someone is needed to say a line, and before you realise it, you may find yourself being offered the chance to put your training and experience to serious professional use.

Plenty of actors have experience of work that they consider ‘beneath them’, but as a student you have nothing to lose. You will have the chance to work with established television directors and screen names, and since so much of acting work comes through networking, you may find that these chance encounters lead to worthwhile career opportunities, and thus theatre auditions for more established roles.

Here at Audition Now, we ourselves have access to a wide network of associates in the worlds of film, TV and drama, and this gives us an edge over our competitors in searching out opportunities for extras work. This means that we can keep you posted about all the latest extras work coming up, with informed updates texted direct to your mobile phone.