Kids Commercial Talent Agent
Bill Naoum

Advice from a Kids Commercial Talent Agent
for the Parents of Child Actors

LA Kids Commercial Talent Agent Bill Naoum is a man with many years of experience and who was generous enough with his time to share with you his advice with regard to getting your child's acting career started in this part of an exclusive interview here on ActingCareerStartUp.com. I'm sure that you will find reading it of great benefit. Tony: As a youth talent agent, what advice do you have for parents who want to get their kids into show business or into doing commercials for example?

Kids Commercial Talent Agent Bill Naoum: The number one piece of advice, and again I don’t mean to sound repetitious because I am going back to the whole acting class or doing plays, but find out if they like this first of all. I know that sometimes when kids are really young you sign them up for gymnastics and this and that and see if this is something they like or that they will take to but make sure that the number one thing is that they like it. A lot of times you will find that out either in a class or if they do plays at school, church whatever it is. Don’t push them in here, again because you want them to do it or because so many people have stopped you on the street and said your kid should be in show business or something like that – because god forbid, and this is the part where I’m being real sincere- I treat these kids like they are my own, you don’t want to see a child get hurt in this business emotionally or whatever because it is, it is a rough business. I mean I was an adult actor and I used to go home crying sometimes. For kids you just want to make sure that this is something that they really like. I think that would be the number one thing. And ultimately the best thing that could possibly happen, is if that child says ‘Mom, I would like to do this.’ Then you’re like ‘ok’, and then you have a running start.

Tony: We talked in the beginning about people who live outside of LA and want to pursue an acting career that will largely take place in LA would you like to address that?

Kids Commercial Talent Agent Bill Naoum: I don’t do a lot of that, because the climate is a little bit different now than it was years ago. The funny thing is there’s a lot of kids that do very well in show business that are typically found from out of town. I’ve talked about this before, its just my opinion, kids don’t grow up to be actors out here. I’m mean people in LA don’t grow up to be actors even though its Hollywood and a lot of them do grow up to be in show business whether its acting, writing or grip and electric or whatever it is, but everybody here grows up just as they do in Chicago or Cleveland- they want to do little league or gymnastics or Club Scouts or something like that. Adults move here so you always have a lot of actors out here, and they are usually the best of the best because they move here. Its easy for adults to move here, kids don’t pack their bags up at 11 and say ‘Mom let’s sell the house and move to California I want to be an actor’. So a lot of times agents will go out and find them, a lot of times they will have showcases out here with out of town actors they will come out here for a week, for like a mini intensive acting camp or something that culminates in a showcase for agents and managers. You just have to be really, really, really, really careful with that because obviously it is a highly, highly competitive business whether you are a kid, adult, animal actor whatever- it’s a very competitive business and to make the ultimate sacrifice of leaving your home and your family and your friends to come out here whether its for forever or for an extended period of time, you just have to be really, really careful with that. It’s really difficult to do.

Tony: How do you manage the audition process if you are outside of LA?

Kids Commercial Talent Agent Bill Naoum: Well, again, I mean it’s like you have to be here. I know that a lot of times especially in the past we used to do, there’s people who represent out of town actors, I have a few of them and if you can get lucky enough to get them an audition or request them to do it on tape, you know, you can do something like that. Usually that’s for more theatrical stuff like for a TV pilot, or a series regular, maybe a lead in a film. Casting directors will look at that tape and if they see something they will call you and say ‘can that person come out here for a producer session or a callback or something like that’. I don’t think that it is as feasible with things like commercials or co-starring, guest starring roles because you gotta kind of be here, casting is really kind of fast and furious- they would rather see a live body than a tape I think. So it becomes more of an issue of being out here and doing it. Unless you happen to live in very close areas, I do have clients that live in Las Vegas, San Diego, San Francisco, and if they get 12 or 24 hours notice they will make the drive here for auditions- god bless them- because that is a very tough thing to do. Although I had someone who booked a TV commercial for T-Mobile that did quite well financially and they did the six hour drive down, six hours back for the callback six hours back home, booked the job and then they did another six hours to shoot the commercial here so you know god bless that is a lot of driving!

See this exclusive video interview with kids commercial talent agent Bill Naoum.

Check out this link for more advice from kids commercial talent agent Bill Naoum.

Here in our agent directory, you cansearch for a kids commercial talent agent in your area.

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What you’re doing is great Anthony. Whenever I read the things on your site, the interviews and even your book, I feel like if only everybody got to read this before they got started, they would be so much better off and everybody else (casting directors, agents, directors, etc.) would be so much better off too.
Personal Manager, Ingrid French

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Tony,
I want to say you changed my life. I want to be an actress so bad, but i began losing motivation when I couldn't figure out what to do. And then I found you! Thanks to you, I'm taking my first acting classes next month! Yippee!
Sara, Pasadena, CA

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Hi Tony
I would like to thank you for helping me with the monologue question I asked you. I went to the auditions for a Drama course and I am happy to say that I have been accepted as a first-year student at the Tshwane University of Technology. Please keep on sending me those newsletters and let me know where I can find books that will help me in my acting career. Thank you once more. Have a blessed day.
Sincerely
Edward Thaba -South Africa

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Dear Anthony,
Just wanted to thank you for bringing me in to [audition for the video], meet you and chat this Saturday. I was really excited to hear about your working on actingcareerstartup.com and even took a look at it today - it's awesome! You are very well-spoken, knowledgeable and enthusiastic, and it shows through the work that you do! I hope our paths in the industry will cross again and really enjoyed meeting you. Thanks, again and best wishes with your very important work!
Warmly,
Gretchen, NY, NY

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Hey Tony, thanks for the info, yours by far is the most useful, I am 30 years old, and I myself always (secretly) wanted to be an actress, but I never knew where to begin, so thank you. You have given me hope!
Ana C., Tampa, FL