It’s time to check in on 2020’s audition statistics. You may be asking yourself: How much did the pandemic affect other actors’ audition numbers? Did I have a good callback ratio? What about my booking ratio?
If you’re not keeping track, you may never know. We recommend tracking your auditions, callbacks, avails, bookings, etc. because “what gets measured gets improved.”
Two of our Career ACTivate Elite Coaching & Mastermind Program actors shared their 2020 audition stats and were generous enough to allow us to share it here.
Leah Rose
@leahroseactress
Total Auditions for 2020: 97 auditions
Commercially: I had 73 auditions, 11 callbacks, 1 avail, and 3 bookings.
Theatrically: I had 24 auditions, 2 callbacks and 4 bookings.
“2020 was the busiest year for me in my 10 years pursuing acting in Los Angeles. It was my first time auditioning for exciting things like Grey’s Anatomy, Selena (Netflix) and an Amazon short film. When I read all of this back to myself now I am excited, proud, and a little shocked!
I guess the reason why I have a habit of glazing over these wins is because I am not yet making a living as an actor. BUT if Leah from 5 years ago were to look at this list of accomplishments she would be super duper impressed 
As my year 1 in the [Elite Coaching & Mastermind] program comes to an end I am very happy I joined. I’m am grateful for this community for sharing your experiences and knowledge! Thank you for again [Coach] Rachel for your excellent guidance, inspiration, and kick-assery! Thank you Jona Xiao!”
Edward Hong
@cinnabonmonster
Total Auditions for 2020: 201
Theatrical: 158
Commercial: 43
“I’ve been chipping away at this acting career for a decade now and thus it goes without saying that I’ve been doing this manic audition tracking for the 10th year. So here it is, the 2020 Acting Track List, Pandemic Edition with the stats and observations that follow:
THEATRICAL
DDO Artists Agency (Theatrical Agent)
Auditions: 12
CB: 2
Avail: 0
Booking: 0
Authentic Talent & Literary Management (Manager)
Auditions: 2
CB: 0
Avail: 0
Booking: 0
Atlas Talent Agency (Voiceover)
Auditions: 129
CB: 0
Avail: 0
Booking: 0
Self-Submissions (Actor’s Access/Social Media)
Auditions: 9
CB: 1
Avail: 0
Booking: 1
REQUESTS
Auditions: 6
CB: 0
Avail: 0
Booking: 1
THEATRICAL BOOKINGS
None
THEATRICAL OFFERS
1/31/20 – Date Night (Ensemble, Occidental College Staged Reading)
5/21/2020 – Fumblewinter (Ensemble, Zoom webseries)
7/16/2020 – How’s The Store? (Lead, Company of Angels (CoA) Zoom Performance)
9/30/20 – A Pretty Good First Draft (Lead, Horror Short Film)
10/3/2020 – A Christmas Presence (Lead, Zoom Performance)
THEATRICAL VOICEOVER BOOKINGS
6/26/2020 – The School Nurse (Guest Star/Recurring, Netflix Dubbing)
THEATRICAL VOICEOVER OFFERS
2/23/2020 – Kingdom (Recurring, Netflix Dubbing)*** This follows from my first booking with this gig on its first season
**3/14/2020 – Escape from Evil Town (Recurring, YouTube Dubbing)
COMMERCIAL
AKA Talent Agency
Auditions: 34
CB: 7
Straight to CB:
Avail: 1
Booking: 1.5
Atlas Talent AgencyAuditions: 8CB: 0Avail: 0Booking: 0
REQUESTSAuditions: 1CB: 0Avail: 0Booking: 1
COMMERCIAL AVAILS
11/2/2020 – Freedom Wireless (Canada international)
COMMERCIAL BOOKINGS
1/24/2020 – Apartments.com (National Commercial)
12/9/2020 – M&M’s (National Commercial) / COVID BACKUP LOLOL
COMMERCIAL VOICEOVER BOOKINGS
8/25/2020 – Real Hype (Commercial)
THEATRICAL OBSERVATIONS
* As to be expected, theatrical on-screen/theatre auditions plummeted to almost nothing for 2020 thanks to the pandemic. While I was aware that things were better for other actors, there were more pressing things to be concerned about than just being an actor.
* The voiceover realm was not affected whatsoever in terms of audition opportunities but this year I was unable to book something for my VO agent alas. But if I did get any opportunities, it was through referrals and gigs I got on my own.
* This year brought about an explosion of Zoom performances and though it was rough in the beginning, it was a delight getting to meet so many amazing artists through this strange realm where I’ve done more readings and performances than I can count. The ones listed here are the ones I got paid for, hence them standing out.
* I did not renew my Actor’s Access account for my reliable source of self-submissions because I wanted to prioritize safety over work, especially if safety can be questioned for major high-profile jobs, then it would be even more so for the indie ones. Don’t regret this choice whatsoever.
* The horror short film was a unique one where it was mainly through our experience with the Make A Wish – A Short Film festival run that we got to work with fellow horror filmmakers we met along the way. Though filming it in October was certainly a risk, especially with my comment above that indie filmmaking poses its challenges with safety, it was something I was grateful nonetheless.
COMMERCIAL OBSERVATIONS
* This year ironically was the best year I ever had in the commercial realm. The Apartments national booking kicked it off at the very beginning, my UPS one got its contract negotiated after 21 months, and at one point in this year, I had three nationals running at the same time, two of which I’m still under holding for (UPS once again and Universal Studios). And for the first time in my life, I was finally able to pay off my lingering credit card debt that I’ve carried for YEARS. It was, without a doubt, an extremely fortunate and privileged position to be in.
* This is also the year that I’ve experienced being a COVID actor backup, which is a strange purgatory position where you technically booked the job, you’re just not the main actor. And in my case with the M&M’s gig that would be my last booking of 2020 (thus reflected by my 1.5 booking), I was considered the primary a few days after the booking until I was demoted to secondary the day before costume fitting. Sucks but in the end, getting paid for 3 COVID tests, a postponed half session fee, and a session fee to basically spend 5 hours in the car while you’re on set isn’t exactly too bad.
OVERALL OBSERVATION
* As to be expected, theatrical on-screen/theatre auditions plummeted to almost nothing for 2020 thanks to the pandemic. While I was aware that things were better for other actors, there were more pressing things to be concerned about than just being an actor.
* The voiceover realm was not affected whatsoever in terms of audition opportunities but this year I was unable to book something for my VO agent alas. But if I did get any opportunities, it was through referrals and gigs I got on my own.
* This year brought about an explosion of Zoom performances and though it was rough in the beginning, it was a delight getting to meet so many amazing artists through this strange realm where I’ve done more readings and performances than I can count. The ones listed here are the ones I got paid for, hence them standing out.
* I did not renew my Actor’s Access account for my reliable source of self-submissions because I wanted to prioritize safety over work, especially if safety can be questioned for major high-profile jobs, then it would be even more so for the indie ones. Don’t regret this choice whatsoever.
* The horror short film was a unique one where it was mainly through our experience with the Make A Wish – A Short Film festival run that we got to work with fellow horror filmmakers we met along the way. Though filming it in October was certainly a risk, especially with my comment above that indie filmmaking poses its challenges with safety, it was something I was grateful nonetheless.”
What About You?
Do you keep track of your audition statistics? Do you review them at the end of each calendar year? Let us know in the comments below!
P.S. Looking for creative, effective ways to generate a lot more auditions? Then you need to check out some free goodies at this link: Valuable Freebie for You!
