I’m an Actor. Should I Move to New York or Hollywood?
How to know whether a larger acting market will create opportunities—or simply make being unprepared more expensive.
New York and Hollywood have occupied a permanent place in the actor’s imagination.
New York means Broadway, Off-Broadway, rehearsal rooms, new plays, musical theatre, and performers moving from daytime auditions to evening shows.
Hollywood—more accurately, the greater Los Angeles area—means film, television, commercials, voiceover work, casting offices, studio lots, and actors hoping the next audition changes everything.
For some actors, relocating to New York City or Los Angeles is eventually the right decision.
For others, the move happens too early.
They arrive with talent but little training, ambition but no plan, or a dream without anything that demonstrates they are prepared to compete in one of the most experienced talent pools in the world.
Moving does not automatically make someone a more serious actor.
Sometimes it simply makes being unprepared considerably more expensive.
The Acting Business Is Difficult Everywhere
Acting is rarely a steady occupation.
Roles may last for a single day, several weeks, or a few months, followed by long stretches without paid work. Part-time employment and irregular schedules are common, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects little or no overall growth in acting employment between 2024 and 2034.
SAG-AFTRA represents approximately 160,000 performers and media professionals across film, television, commercials, voiceover, broadcasting, recording, and related fields. That number is not a count of unemployed Hollywood actors, but it gives some idea of the size and range of the professional talent pool.
That does not mean you should abandon the dream.
It means you should pursue it with your eyes open.
A larger market may offer more auditions, but it also brings more competition, higher living expenses, and thousands of experienced performers pursuing many of the same opportunities.
As the saying goes:
The best way to achieve your dreams is to wake up.
Waking up does not mean giving up.
It means understanding the world you want to enter so that you can prepare for it honestly.
New York and Los Angeles Still Matter
The entertainment industry is more geographically distributed than it once was, but New York and Los Angeles remain enormously important.
New York continues to support one of the world’s deepest theatre communities alongside substantial film, television, commercial, and voiceover production. During the 2025–2026 Broadway season, 74 productions played more than 13,000 performances for approximately 14.6 million audience members.
California remains heavily invested in film and television production. The state’s current Film and Television Tax Credit Program provides $750 million annually through June 2030 for eligible television projects, independent films, studio features, pilots, and other productions.
There are opportunities in both markets.
There are also countless highly trained, experienced, connected actors pursuing them.
The Question Is Not Only Where the Auditions Are
Of course, there are more professional auditions in New York and Los Angeles than in most smaller cities.
But the existence of more auditions does not guarantee that you will receive them.
A major acting market includes:
Experienced actors with extensive credits
Established relationships among agents, managers, casting directors, and producers
Union and nonunion divisions
Performers with professional headshots, reels, résumés, and self-tape skills
Actors with specialized movement, vocal, dialect, musical, and performance abilities
People who already understand the business and behave professionally within it
Moving closer to casting does not automatically give you access to casting.
Before relocating, ask a more useful question:
What do I expect the move to solve?
Are you moving because your current market genuinely cannot provide the next level of opportunity you need?
Or are you hoping that a new ZIP code will solve problems with your training, confidence, discipline, materials, audition technique, or professional readiness?
Those are very different situations.
Self-Tapes Changed Access—but Not the Need to Be Ready
Actors no longer have to be physically present in a casting office for every first-round audition.
Self-tapes and virtual auditions have become standard parts of professional casting. Current SAG-AFTRA agreements include protections governing deadlines, page limits, virtual audition options, and fees. Under the 2026 TV/Theatrical Agreement, performers cannot be charged to submit a self-tape or upload a headshot or reel.
That has created greater access for actors who live outside New York and Los Angeles.
It has not eliminated geography.
Productions may still prefer or require local hires. Callbacks, chemistry reads, rehearsals, fittings, and filming may require quick availability. Agents may want clients who can work as local talent without complicated travel or housing arrangements.
Self-tapes can help you enter the room from a distance.
You still need to be ready when the room opens.
You May Not Need to Move as Early as You Think
Film and television production now happens throughout the country.
North Carolina productions generated an estimated $185.5 million in direct in-state spending during 2025. Thirty-eight productions filmed across 45 counties and created more than 7,000 crew, talent, and background-performer job opportunities.
That does not make Hickory the equivalent of Los Angeles or New York.
It does mean the choice is no longer simply:
Stay home and do nothing—or move across the country and become an actor.
You can train locally.
You can perform locally and regionally.
You can prepare self-tapes.
You can audition for projects filming in North Carolina and throughout the Southeast.
You can develop professional materials, build credits, collaborate on independent projects, and discover what kind of actor you are before committing your entire life to a larger market.
Become a Bigger Fish Before Entering the Ocean
It is often easier to become a bigger fish in a smaller pond.
One thing is certain about New York and Los Angeles:
You are not entering a pond.
You are entering the ocean.
Before you move, find the theatre companies, filmmakers, acting teachers, student productions, independent projects, and creative collaborators near you.
Audition.
Take roles that challenge you.
Learn how to receive direction.
Discover whether you can remain prepared, cooperative, and creative throughout a difficult rehearsal process.
Develop the ability to make clear character choices.
Learn your lines before someone has to ask.
Show up when you say you will.
Be someone other actors and directors want in the room.
Professionalism is not something you save for Broadway or a studio set. It is something you demonstrate long before anyone in New York or Los Angeles knows your name.
A larger market should be the next stage of your development—not the place where your development finally begins.
Local Success Is Not the Same as Industry Readiness
There is one important warning.
Success in a smaller market can build confidence, but it can also create a false sense of readiness.
Being cast frequently in community theatre does not automatically mean you are prepared for professional stage auditions.
Being expressive onstage does not necessarily mean your performance will work in a close-up.
Having a magnetic personality does not mean you understand script analysis.
Receiving compliments does not replace disciplined training.
Local experience matters because it gives you opportunities to work. But the goal is not merely to become locally recognizable.
The goal is to use those opportunities to become better.
Ask yourself:
Am I being cast because I am prepared, or because the available pool is small?
Can I perform consistently—not only when I feel inspired?
Can I adjust quickly when a director changes the approach?
Can I make specific choices without overplaying them?
Can I deliver an effective self-tape without someone walking me through every step?
Do my headshots accurately represent me?
Does my reel demonstrate what I can actually do?
Am I prepared for rejection without becoming unreliable, bitter, or difficult to work with?
Do I understand the difference between wanting attention and wanting to do the work?
Those questions matter in every market.
They simply become harder to avoid in New York and Los Angeles.
What New York Offers Actors
New York may be the stronger fit when your primary goals include:
Broadway, Off-Broadway, or regional theatre
Musical theatre
New plays and staged readings
Classical or contemporary stage acting
Theatre, film, and television crossover work
A dense creative community built around live performance
Training and networking within a major theatre culture
New York is not only a theatre city. It also supports film, television, commercials, voiceover, digital production, and independent work.
But an actor drawn primarily to theatre may find New York’s artistic culture more closely aligned with the life they imagine.
That does not make entry easy.
A successful Broadway season can serve millions of audience members while employing only a tiny percentage of the actors who dream of working there.
A healthy industry does not guarantee an individual actor a healthy career.
What Los Angeles Offers Actors
Los Angeles may be the stronger fit when your primary goals include:
Film and television
Commercial acting
Acting for the camera
Voiceover
Motion capture and interactive media
Writing, directing, or producing alongside acting
Building relationships within a large screen-production community
Los Angeles offers an enormous concentration of agencies, managers, studios, production companies, casting professionals, teachers, filmmakers, and other actors.
It is also geographically spread out, highly competitive, and built around an industry in which work can arrive in short, unpredictable bursts.
You may live in Los Angeles for years without feeling as though you have “made it.”
You may also form creative relationships, make your own work, discover a specialty, or find opportunities that were unavailable elsewhere.
The city provides proximity.
It does not provide guarantees.
New York or Los Angeles: Which Is Better?
Neither city is universally better.
The better city is the one that fits:
The type of acting you want to pursue
Your current level of preparation
Your professional contacts
Your financial reality
Your transportation and lifestyle needs
Your willingness to build a life there beyond acting
The opportunities already beginning to pull you toward that market
Do not choose based only on an image of the city.
Visit it.
Take a legitimate class or workshop.
Attend theatre.
Observe the daily rhythm.
Talk with working actors—not only aspiring celebrities or people selling an acting dream.
Consider whether you would still want to live there during a year when the acting work is disappointing.
You are not only choosing a market.
You are choosing a place to build a life.
What Should an Actor Have Before Moving?
There is no single résumé, number of credits, or level of experience that makes every actor ready.
But most actors should have more than desire.
A Dependable Acting Technique
You need a process for approaching a script, understanding the circumstances, making choices, listening, responding, and adjusting.
A good performance cannot depend entirely on instinct, mood, or inspiration.
Audition Skills
Auditioning is its own discipline.
You should know how to prepare sides, make clear choices quickly, take redirection, slate appropriately, and recover when something unexpected happens.
On-Camera Awareness
Stage and screen acting overlap, but they are not identical.
You should understand framing, eyelines, stillness, continuity, vocal scale, and how the camera reads thought and behavior.
Self-Tape Skills
You should be able to produce a clean, well-lit, clearly recorded audition without allowing the technical setup to overwhelm the acting.
The goal is not to make a miniature movie.
The goal is to present a believable performance clearly.
Professional Materials
Depending on your goals, this may include:
Current headshots
An acting résumé
A performance reel or carefully selected clips
Casting profiles
Training credits
Special skills you can genuinely demonstrate
Accurate contact and representation information
Experience Working With Other People
Acting is collaborative.
Directors, scene partners, readers, crew members, wardrobe departments, stage managers, casting teams, and producers all need actors who can listen, adapt, communicate, and remain professional.
Financial Runway
A move should not depend on booking an acting job immediately.
You need a realistic plan for:
Housing
Transportation
Food
Training
Headshots
Casting services
Union expenses when applicable
Flexible employment
Ordinary life when acting is slow
You should be able to survive long enough to pursue the career without treating every audition as an emergency.
A Reason for Choosing That Market
“I want to be famous” is not a market strategy.
A stronger reason sounds like:
My professional theatre goals require consistent access to New York.
I have representation asking me to be based in Los Angeles.
I am regularly traveling for callbacks, and the travel is now limiting me.
I have trained, developed strong materials, built credits, saved money, and am ready to compete at the next level.
I understand the city and want to build a life there even when acting is slow.
Satisfying the Itch Without Making a Premature Move
Sometimes the desire to move is really a desire to feel that your acting life is moving.
Those are not necessarily the same thing.
You may be craving:
More serious training
More challenging material
A creative community
A reason to audition again
On-camera experience
Better professional materials
A project that feels meaningful
Help identifying your next step
Permission to take your artistic goals seriously
You may not need a moving truck to address those needs.
You may need a scene.
A lesson.
An audition.
A self-tape.
A headshot session.
A short film.
A director who will challenge you.
A teacher who will tell you the truth.
A creative community that expects you to show up and do the work.
Local training and creative experience can satisfy part of that itch while helping you determine whether the larger move is actually necessary.
You may discover that you want a meaningful artistic life without building your entire existence around a national acting career.
You may discover that you absolutely do want New York or Los Angeles—and that you are willing to prepare for it.
Both discoveries are valuable.
How Hickory Arts Helps Actors Prepare Before They Move
Hickory Arts is not New York.
It is not Los Angeles.
We do not pretend that taking acting lessons in Hickory creates the same volume of professional auditions as living in a major entertainment market.
What we can do is help you arrive in that market with something stronger than hope.
Through private acting lessons, audition preparation, scene study, character development, movement, improv, acting for the camera, and Artist Development, actors can work on the craft and professional habits they will need wherever they go.
Depending on the actor and the goal, that work may include:
Building a repeatable acting process
Preparing theatre or film auditions
Choosing and coaching monologues
Breaking down scenes and sides
Developing stronger character choices
Adjusting stage technique for the camera
Practicing self-tapes
Learning how to take direction
Strengthening confidence and communication
Preparing for school, community, regional, or professional auditions
Clarifying artistic and career goals
Developing headshots, video, or other creative materials through Hickory Arts’ photography and media services
The goal is not to make an actor dependent on a teacher.
The goal is to develop an actor who can enter a room—or submit a tape—with clear choices, preparation, confidence, and the ability to adjust.
When Moving May Be the Right Decision
A move may make sense when:
You have developed strong foundational training.
Your headshots, résumé, and reel accurately represent your current abilities.
You have exhausted the meaningful opportunities available in your immediate market.
You are receiving interest, auditions, referrals, or representation connected to the larger city.
You have visited and understand the practical realities of living there.
You have enough savings and flexible income to survive without immediate acting work.
You are prepared to continue training after you move.
You are willing to remain patient for years, not weeks.
You want the life—not only the fantasy—associated with that city.
The move should feel like a deliberate next step.
Not an emergency escape from impatience.
When You Should Probably Wait
You may need more preparation when:
You have never taken acting lessons.
You have little or no experience auditioning.
You do not yet know whether you prefer stage or screen.
You have no current headshots, résumé, or usable footage.
You cannot produce a basic self-tape.
You have not pursued available local or regional opportunities.
You expect an agent to create a career for you.
You have no realistic way to support yourself.
You believe proximity alone will cause someone to discover you.
You are moving primarily because success has not happened quickly.
Waiting is not the same as giving up.
Preparation is part of the career.
Dreams Work Better With Their Eyes Open
Actors are often told to dream big.
They should.
But dreams become more useful when paired with craft, patience, planning, professional behavior, and an honest understanding of the business.
New York and Los Angeles contain extraordinary opportunities.
They also contain thousands of talented people working very hard for a limited number of roles.
Before entering the ocean, become seaworthy.
Train.
Perform.
Audition.
Make things.
Develop your materials.
Learn how the business works.
Build relationships.
Save money.
Become someone who is prepared when an opportunity arrives.
Then, when the larger market truly offers more than it costs you to enter it, go.
Not because the city will turn you into an actor.
Because you have already begun becoming one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do actors still need to move to New York or Los Angeles?
Not always. Self-tapes and regional production have made some auditions accessible from outside the largest markets. Local-hire requirements, callbacks, rehearsals, fittings, networking, representation, and the concentration of professional opportunities can still make relocation important for some careers.
Is New York or Los Angeles better for actors?
New York is especially strong for theatre and musical theatre while also supporting film and television. Los Angeles remains a major center for screen acting, commercials, voiceover, and broader production work. The better choice depends on your goals, preparation, contacts, finances, and preferred way of living.
Can I begin an acting career in North Carolina?
Yes. North Carolina supports theatre, independent productions, commercials, television, streaming projects, and feature films. Local and regional experience can help actors train, develop materials, earn credits, and determine whether a larger-market move is necessary.
Can I pursue acting from Hickory, NC?
You can begin training, performing, developing self-tape skills, creating professional materials, and pursuing local and regional auditions while living in Hickory. Some professional opportunities may eventually require travel or relocation, but you do not have to move before beginning the work.
How much acting experience should I have before moving?
There is no universal number of roles or years. You should have dependable training, audition experience, professional materials, self-tape ability, realistic financial preparation, and a clear reason that the larger market is the necessary next step.
Should I get an agent before moving?
Representation before relocating can provide helpful market guidance, but many actors move without it. An agent is more likely to be interested when your training, materials, credits, casting type, and professional readiness are already clear.
Can self-tapes replace moving?
Self-tapes can give actors access to auditions from outside the production market, but they do not replace every callback, rehearsal, fitting, networking opportunity, or local-hire requirement. They expand access; they do not eliminate geography.
Can acting lessons help me decide whether to move?
Yes. Training can reveal your strengths, weaknesses, interests, and level of readiness. It can also help you determine whether you are drawn primarily to theatre, film, television, musical theatre, voiceover, or another area before you choose a market.