If your child tells you they want to be on TV and you want to get them into the entertainment industry the first thing you need to consider is, does your child want to become an actor for the right reasons. It should NEVER be about money or fame. If your child is pursuing acting for money or fame it will to be very short lived. They will find out how much time and hard work it takes and will quickly lose interest. On the other hand, if it is something they truly love it will never feel like work to them and they will stick with it no matter how much time it takes.
As a parent you need to understand is this is a business and needs to be treated as a business! If your child is going to succeed you need to be committed to making their business successful. And I mean 100% committed! Committed to dealing with the traffic jams, last minute auditions etcetera. It takes much more work, patience and due diligence than most people realize. You will also need to be willing to invest money on acting classes and eventually headshots. This can get very expensive, costing hundreds of dollars out of pocket before your child is even ready to look for auditions or an agent.
Once your child is trained and is ready to start working you need to keep in mind that if you are interested in your child doing commercial work you will need to live in the market they want to work in. The reason for this is most commercial audition notifications go out within a twenty four hour timeframe. You would be notified on Monday for a Tuesday audition and so on. It would be virtually insane to fly from, say, Kentucky to LA or NY every time your child had a commercial audition, the cost alone would be astronomical.
With film and television auditions there is normally a few days notice, there will even be times that your agent can arrange to put your child’s audition on tape and send it to the casting director so you won’t have to fly out for the initial audition. If you don’t live in a major market like LA or NY it is difficult, but not impossible, to get an agent for television and film in those markets. When looking for an agent in another state they need to know you are able and willing to fly out for an audition or callback on short notice before they will even consider working with you.
To find a talent agent go to SAG.org and enter find an agent in the search. There you will find all SAG franchised agencies listed by state.
For more advise read my book FREE on Amazon "Mom I want t be on TV" A Parents Guide to the Entertainment Industry