 I've been asked a few times to sit down one-on-one to talk about the acting market here in the Bay Area and I always think like I don't do I even know anything that would be helpful and then I just started writing down things I know about the acting market here in the Bay Area. I thought wait I would love to have known all these things when I first moved here to get me started to know how to navigate so this quickly turn is turning into a six-part series so today I'm gonna just tell you guys my process like a few minutes of what happened to me in the Bay Area and why I decided to become an actress based out of San Francisco and LA and then the other videos are going to be about agencies, casting offices, theaters, training, where to act on camera here in the Bay Area where to meet people but please note that this is my experience there are for sure actors that live in the Bay Area that are able to book a lot more things than I can maybe their agents have more connections maybe they just have more connections in general let me tell you about my story today when I first moved to the Bay Area it was to go to Cal State East Bay and Hayward and that's where I earned my BFA in acting with an option in acting and dance and then after that basically I had a pretty good understanding of acting like a basic understanding of acting so I started to audition with my professor's advice of looking on theater Bay Area for auditions and just going to the websites for their open casting calls and so I was doing that and I was not getting any kind of callbacks or affirmations in general that that was the place to for me to be I just wasn't getting cast in anything so then I decided to get a casting networks account SF casting networks account and that is when I started booking commercial jobs and I realized that the commercial jobs were paying me a lot more than the theater jobs so when I started booking jobs on SF casting commercial jobs and indie film student films I got the confidence to finally apply for representation in the Bay Area and I had a meeting with two agencies it was Nilo and MDT and they both after the meeting wanted to sign me and the process to audition for them or you know talk to them about potentially representing me was pretty easy they asked me what my goals were as an actress with type of things I wanted to audition for looked at some of my photos had me perform the sides from my commercial and then they were like okay we want to sign you ultimately I decided to go with MDT just because they had been around for a lot longer at that time Nilo had only been around for like three or four years but the San Francisco acting market at least in my experience is very commercial heavy very industrial heavy for all those tech companies and there are really great amazing filmmakers in the Bay Area but they're indie films or student films and you're not gonna make a lot of money off of that and so that's when I decided to figure out how to make working in LA and San Francisco work for me because this was not cutting it the San Francisco Bay Area California in general you know is expensive so to be making even $1,000 a week is not gonna cut it if you want to live above poverty here's some things that I would advise you to do if you are acting in the Bay Area and I will go into detail into each of these more in upcoming videos but the first thing is to please make your own work for the in between times sometimes I won't get a single audition in a week and when you're not doing anything creative you really get stumped down especially if you have a day job and you're like what am I doing I'm not even actually acting so that's why I created a YouTube channel because I really needed something creative to do and don't be afraid to get representation because when I finally got the courage to go do it I realized San Francisco is very commercial heavy my look is a lot of the reason why somebody might cast me in commercials so don't be afraid to get your actor package ready and go and look for an agent find an acting class you like in the Bay Area because not only will you of course stay sharp in your acting abilities but you will also find a lot of other creatives where you'll eventually create films with them plays and just learn about what they're doing what your peers are doing because I learned a lot from other people and also whenever I used to go to casting offices to audition a lot of actors would also ask me who are you with and I would assume that they are looking for an agent or maybe they're just not happy where there's with their audition for a short play there are surprising amount of short play festivals in the Bay Area and you will be able to meet so many people through there because there's the writers for the short play the director the stage manager all of the actors all of the people that come to see those shorts a lot of agents get invited by the actors to come and see them just so they're up to date on like work that they're doing and they'll end up seeing you that's actually how one of my best friends got an agent because the agent was in the audience he was related to somebody that was in the production he came and he was like who is that I want to talk to her and she got signed and the same people that are in the theater community are very often also interested in doing on-camera things get a casting networks account because that is where you're going to be able to find your own commercials to be in background work industrials student film so you're going to be able to get a lot of experience auditioning on there and also booking gigs if you want to get higher paying jobs or you want to be in the productions that come into town like 13 reasons why was here for a few seasons you're going to need an agent and that agent is likely only going to be able to get you roles that have a few lines because a lot of the casting for those big shows happen in LA or New York or other places ideally you would live in San Francisco if you can Berkeley or Oakland but the more affordable places are places like Hayward which not a lot of people want to move to and it's a college town figure out a flexible job that can get you more income because especially at the beginning you might not make enough money to live here and uh you need money you just need it so if you don't come for money if you don't have money like you can definitely find different jobs on the weekends or the evenings because most things do film Monday through Friday during the day so find a flexible job I've always told people I'm an actress and that I need some kind of flexibility if they don't like it I keep looking it's harder than just you know walking into a target and being like I need a job I'm flexible I'll come whenever you need me of course it's going to be harder for you to be able to find somebody that is willing to give you that flexibility but find that and if you want to be in more TV and film I would suggest to do what I'm doing and live in San Francisco and LA and figure out how to make that work in my experience I take on office jobs here and there again I told them I'm an actress so they're very flexible with me and I try my best when I'm there I'm 100% there and I also have a very encouraging intelligent good with his money partner and his name is Dwight but true you can do it it's not easy by any means duh or else like everybody would be doing it because acting is so much fun let me know if you have any other questions specifically on the Bay Area because I am going to be filming a lot of videos relating to it coming up and at the end of every video I feature another channel this is Esmeralda she makes makeup lifestyle and fashion blogs so go check her out and here is the video about how I got my agent in San Francisco