How to become a television extra and get work

If you have ever fancied being on television but have no acting talent then being a television extra could be the job for you.
The good news about being a television extra, is that it is relatively easy to get into the pay can be OK, and you can work hours to suit yourself. The bad news is it can be very long hours, boring and unglamorous (I’m speaking from experience here). The work goes in cycles it can be very busy for some periods of the years then very quiet for other periods, it is definitely not a job you could make a living wage from.

If you want to get into the television extra industry then you need to join an agency, it really is a simple as Googling to see who your local agency is. In my case I joined www.unitedcasting.com, they are a Glasgow based television agency and deal with a lot of the STV programmes and adverts. I’m not sure how all television agencies work but in United Castings case they take on new recruits once a year and you need to pay a joining fee.

Being a television extra is not going to make you rich, expect to be paid around £70 - £100 per day, the agency will take its cut off that, and you need to wait at least a month to be paid. The hours are long in some cases you need to be on set around 8am and you may not finish till 8pm or 10pm. It can be very boring, when I was an extra most of that time was spent sitting around waiting for the crew to setup the shot. The reality is you may only spend half an hour filming during a 10 hour shift, but you will be provided with a nice lunch!

One of the bonuses about joining a television agency is that sometimes you may be offered to audition for a TV advert. Adverts are where the good pay is, the cash is far more than TV extra work. When I was asked to auction for a few adverts the pay was going to be £2000 for 2 days work. This will not be the case for all advert work, and you need to audition for adverts so there is no guarantee that you would get the work anyway.

Overall if you have a spare day off here and there and you would like to do something completely different then television extra work maybe something to consider. And you never know what famous people you might meet as well.