Actor
Actor scores 61/100 on this site's structural exposure measure, clearing this site's Safe band, and the strongest available evidence backs that up in the mainstream of the industry — while also revealing real exposure in one specific, disclosed corner of the job.
We have not ingested real-world usage data for this occupation yet. We show a band only where genuine data exists, rather than estimate one.
What a actor actually does
Actors portray characters in film, television, theater, commercials, and video games, working from a script to bring a role to life through voice, movement, and emotional presence. The job runs on auditions far more than steady employment: most actors spend more time reading for roles than performing in them, and the majority piece together income from a mix of stage work, background/extra work, commercial spots, voice-over sessions, and non-acting jobs between bookings.
Stage actors rehearse for weeks before a live run and must recreate a full performance, night after night, in real time with no retakes. On-camera work involves repeated takes, marks to hit, and close coordination with directors, other actors, and crew, often filming scenes out of chronological order.
Because the work is overwhelmingly freelance and project-based, most working actors are represented by SAG-AFTRA, the performers' union, which negotiates minimum pay rates, working conditions, and — as of the union's 2023 contract — specific consent and compensation terms governing the use of an actor's digitally created or altered likeness.
Why it reads this way
Actor scores 61/100 on this site's structural exposure measure, clearing this site's Safe band, and the strongest available evidence backs that up in the mainstream of the industry — while also revealing real exposure in one specific, disclosed corner of the job.
SAG-AFTRA's 2023 contract, ratified after a 118-day strike, requires a producer to get specific consent before creating a digital replica outside the role it was made for, and to negotiate compensation when one is used — a genuine, enforceable collective-bargaining term binding on signatory productions, not a voluntary guideline.
That wall isn't airtight: SAG-AFTRA filed a formal unfair-labor-practice charge in 2025 after alleging a producer used an AI-generated voice modeled on a licensed performance without the required bargaining, evidence the protection depends on active union enforcement rather than being self-executing.
Separately, when a studio-backed AI "actress" launched in late 2025, major talent agencies publicly declined to sign her and no studio has cast her in paid work — a real, disconfirming data point against the idea that AI performers are gaining commercial traction.
The clearest real displacement found involves synthetic voice work and consented digital doubles for archival or posthumous roles, not currently working actors losing stage or on-camera bookings to AI outright; that distinction matters and should inform how seriously an actor weighs this occupation's exposure depending on how much of their income comes from voice work specifically.
Skills this role draws on
We don't yet have task-by-task time-share data for this occupation, so we can't show which specific tasks carry the exposure score above. This is the real skill set instead.
Typical salary range (USD)
$34,320–$298,854
Average: $60,424/yr
Range source: BLS OEWS wage data via O*NET OnLine (2025 release), SOC 27-2011.00 'Actors'. Note: this wage survey covers wage-and-salary employment and is known to undercount self-employed and gig-booked performers, who make up a large share of working actors — figures here should be read as a rough approximation, not typical freelance/per-project income.
Average source: BLS OEWS wage data for Actors (27-2011.00) via O*NET OnLine, 2025 wage data, annualized from the reported median hourly wage ($29.05/hr x 2,080 hours)
Related careers
Head-to-head comparisons
Actor scores 61/100, clearing this site's Safe band, reinforced by SAG-AFTRA's 2023 contract, which requires specific consent and negotiated compensation before a producer can create or reuse a digital replica of a performer — a genuine, enforceable collective-bargaining term, though the union's 2025 unfair-labor-practice charge over an AI-voiced character shows the protection depends on active enforcement, not automatic compliance. When a studio-backed AI 'actress' launched in late 2025, major talent agencies publicly declined to sign her and no studio has cast her in paid work, real disconfirming evidence against AI performers gaining commercial traction. Exposure concentrates in synthetic voice work and consented archival/posthumous digital doubles, not currently working actors losing live or on-camera bookings outright — actors earning primarily from voice work face meaningfully higher exposure than this occupation-wide verdict reflects, as of 2026-08-12.
This is a researched judgment (checklist v1.2), not a statistical measurement — it sits alongside, not instead of, the structural exposure signal above. Next scheduled review: 2027-02-12.
Sources (5)
- https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/27-2011.00
- https://www.onetonline.org/link/localwages/27-2011.00
- https://www.authorsguild.org/news/sag-aftra-agreement-establishes-important-ai-safeguards/
- https://variety.com/2025/gaming/news/sag-aftra-fortnite-ai-darth-vader
- https://variety.com/2025/film/news/sag-aftra-tilly-norwood-ai-actress-1236534779/
Data sources & methodology
Salary data: BLS OEWS wage data via O*NET OnLine (2025 release), SOC 27-2011.00 'Actors'. Note: this wage survey covers wage-and-salary employment and is known to undercount self-employed and gig-booked performers, who make up a large share of working actors — figures here should be read as a rough approximation, not typical freelance/per-project income.. Min/max figures represent the 10th–90th percentile annual wage range across the United States. Average figure sourced separately: BLS OEWS wage data for Actors (27-2011.00) via O*NET OnLine, 2025 wage data, annualized from the reported median hourly wage ($29.05/hr x 2,080 hours).
Automation Risk Score: Based on O*NET occupational analysis (27-2011.00) evaluating task complexity, physical requirements, social intelligence, and environmental variability. Methodology based on research from Frey & Osborne (Oxford, 2017).
Growth projections: Little or no change (2024-2034), roughly flat (BLS OOH / O*NET OnLine projections), based on BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook.