Actors
Description
Play parts in stage, television, radio, video, or film productions, or other settings for entertainment, information, or instruction. Interpret serious or comic role by speech, gesture, and body movement to entertain or inform audience. May dance and sing.
Job tasks
- • Study and rehearse roles from scripts to interpret, learn and memorize lines, stunts, and cues as directed.
- • Work closely with directors, other actors, and playwrights to find the interpretation most suited to the role.
- • Learn about characters in scripts and their relationships to each other to develop role interpretations.
- • Collaborate with other actors as part of an ensemble.
- • Perform humorous and serious interpretations of emotions, actions, and situations, using body movements, facial expressions, and gestures.
- • Attend auditions and casting calls to audition for roles.
- • Portray and interpret roles, using speech, gestures, and body movements, to entertain, inform, or instruct radio, film, television, or live audiences.
- • Work with other crew members responsible for lighting, costumes, make-up, and props.
- • Sing or dance during dramatic or comedic performances.
- • Read from scripts or books to narrate action or to inform or entertain audiences, utilizing few or no stage props.
- • Promote productions using means such as interviews about plays or movies.
- • Write original or adapted material for dramas, comedies, puppet shows, narration, or other performances.
- • Prepare and perform action stunts for motion picture, television, or stage productions.
- • Tell jokes, perform comic dances, songs and skits, impersonate mannerisms and voices of others, contort face, and use other devices to amuse audiences.
- • Introduce performances and performers to stimulate excitement and coordinate smooth transition of acts during events.
- • Dress in comical clown costumes and makeup, and perform comedy routines to entertain audiences.
- • Perform original and stock tricks of illusion to entertain and mystify audiences, occasionally including audience members as participants.
- • Construct puppets and ventriloquist dummies, and sew accessory clothing, using hand tools and machines.
Abilities
Verbal Abilities
- • Oral Comprehension
- • Written Comprehension
- • Oral Expression
Idea Generation and Reasoning Abilities
- • Fluency of Ideas
- • Originality
- • Problem Sensitivity
Memory
- • Memorization
Attentiveness
- • Selective Attention
Visual Abilities
- • Near Vision
Auditory and Speech Abilities
- • Speech Recognition
- • Speech Clarity
Skills
Content
- • Reading Comprehension
- • Active Listening
- • Speaking
Process
- • Critical Thinking
- • Monitoring
Social Skills
- • Social Perceptiveness
Resource Management Skills
- • Time Management
Knowledge
Business and Management
- • Customer and Personal Service
Mathematics and Science
- • Psychology
- • Sociology and Anthropology
Arts and Humanities
- • English Language
- • Fine Arts
Communications
- • Communications and Media
Interview options
Interviewee gender
Interviewee accent
Interview time
Source
Tasks & skills:
O*NET occupational data (work activities, skills, knowledge).
Learn more
Sources & Standards:
This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026