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To join Spotlight as a Performer, you must be over 18 and you would need to meet one of the three criteria below.
1. Experience:
You must have at least one featured role with an Equity or equivalent union contract or two professional performance credits.
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- All eligible credits will have been contracted as a featured performer, i.e., actor, singer, dancer, presenter, comedian, commentator, puppeteer, voice-over artist, motion capture performer, model, and variety performer. The credits will be minimum wage compliant or profit share. Ensemble work in theatre is accepted.
- We will accept self-produced credits as long as you show evidence of financial/contractual gain from this work and that you performed to a paying audience.
- Please note, for the Experience route, that we do not accept extra/supporting artist work, unpaid work, stunt work, body double work or credits where productions where part of your training.
To understand more about the kinds of credits you need, please look here.
2. Training:
You must have completed at least a year of full-time professional performance training (minimum of RQF Level 5 or equivalent level training in countries outside the UK) or at least two years of part-time practical performance training.
For assessing training without a qualification and part time courses, the training would need to meet the following criteria:
- Vocational training courses for performers – practical rather than theoretical
- Audition requirements/procedures for the course or school
- Training that offers a professional showcase opportunity, attended by industry
- Training that offers professional development programme with industry engagement
- Access to professional facilities
- Clear commitments on safeguarding, access, bullying and harassment, and diversity
You can find the full training criteria by clicking here.
3. Recommendation:
You must have a recommendation from a party that's a member of the CDG, CSA, CDA, CPMA, ICDN, or a Spotlight registered agent (please note that agencies representing only extras cannot recommend performers). Please see our joining page to see the recommendation form that they can fill out for you.
Photos
You will need to attach a main headshot, this should be:
- A head and shoulders shot
- At least 500 pixels wide by 500 pixels tall (you’ll see a warning at upload if it’s not)
- At least 1MB and no more than 40MB
- Screengrabs or photos with copyright/watermarks will be rejected
Names
As a Performer, you must have a unique stage name. You will be able to check your name for an exact matches against our database on the first stage of the application.
Our team will do further checks, our guidelines do not permit:
- Same/similar names (spelling/sound ) when a name already exists e.g. Jayne Peel and Jane Peal or Judi Dench and Judy Dench
- Adding initials when a name already exists e.g. Meryl K Streep
- A diminutive of a long form name where a long form name already exists e.g. Pete Smith if we already have a Peter Smith
- A long form name where a diminutive already exists e.g. Benjamin Callard where we already have a Ben Callard
- Pluralised surnames where another exists e.g. John Owen and John Owens
To go ahead and make an application, please click here, and we will aim to get back to you within five business days.
Please look at our News and Advice page to help you at the beginning of your membership, and you can also take a look here to check if your professional name might be available.