Industry
Part of Television actors: role categories, pace, and a character still being written
A television actor's credit ledger, field by field, to check directory data
A television actor's credit ledger: what each field means, the mistake it prevents, why an episode count is not a field, and what never belongs in the record.
Every directory that lists you will eventually be wrong about you. The only record that can correct them is the one you keep yourself, and most performers do not keep one.
This page is that record, field by field: what each one means, what mistake it prevents, and where its value comes from. It is written for the performer keeping it, and it names no one.
What to take away
- Keep your own credit ledger, built from the production's own records, and treat every directory as a copy that drifts from it.
- Each field has one meaning. Name as credited, credit type, episode span, production, dates with their type, and where you confirmed it.
- The fields you do not keep matter as much. Nothing about you that is not about the work.
The ledger, field by field
| Field | What it means | The mistake it prevents |
|---|---|---|
| Name as credited | The spelling on screen for this credit, even if it is not your usual one | A directory merging you with someone else, or splitting you in two |
| Production | The title as the production uses it, with any working title kept alongside | Losing a credit when a series is renamed before broadcast |
| Company and broadcaster or platform | Who made it and who commissioned it | Confusing two productions with the same title |
| Role | The character name as credited | A search by character failing |
| Credit type | Regular, recurring, guest, co-star, voice, uncredited | A count that means nothing because it mixes types |
| Episode span | The season and episode identifiers you appear in, not a count | Counts that change with every recut and every platform |
| Dates, with type | Shoot dates and air dates, each labeled as what it is | A timeline that puts your work a year after you did it |
| Billing wording | The exact credit phrase, such as "with" or "as" | Reproducing a contractual term wrongly on a resume |
| Source | Where you confirmed it: episode credits, contract, call sheet, press release | Not being able to prove the credit when it is challenged |
| Checked date | When you last confirmed the entry against its source | Carrying an error forward for years |
| Status | Aired, unaired, cut, in post-production | Listing work that nobody can find |
Why a count is not a field
Episode counts change with credit type, with whether unaired episodes are included, with recasts, and with a platform quietly re-editing a season. Store the span, meaning which episodes, and derive a count when you need one. The count on any given day is then a calculation you can show, not a number you have to defend.
Count versus episode span
Episode count
- Credit type
- Mixes types
- Unaired episodes
- Included or not
- Recasts
- Distorts total
- Platform re-edits
- Changes silently
- Defensibility
- Number to defend
Episode span
- Credit type
- Keeps types separate
- Unaired episodes
- Explicitly marked
- Recasts
- Shows which episodes
- Platform re-edits
- Stable identifiers
- Defensibility
- Calculation to show
Where the values come from
In order of authority: the episode's own credits, the contractual record that a screen credit actually is, then your contract or deal memo, which sets the credit wording.
Source order of authority
- Episode's own credits
- Contractual record of screen credit
- Contract or deal memo
- Call sheets
- Broadcaster or producer cast information
After those come call sheets, which fix the shoot dates, and the broadcaster's or producer's published cast information. A database is not on the list. The ledger exists to check databases and cannot be built from them.
Keep copies of the documents. They are your records of your own employment, and the only evidence that will settle a dispute about a credit years later. The page on what series television asks of a performer explains why the gap between shooting and broadcast makes the dated documents matter.
Reconciling a directory against the ledger
When a directory is wrong about you, and it will be, the ledger gives you the correction with its evidence attached. Some directories accept corrections with a source; some do not, and then all you can do is keep your own record straight. A correction sent without a source is an opinion competing with another opinion.
Reconciling a directory
- Compare directory entry against ledger
- Attach the source to the correction
- Send correction to the directory
- If refused, keep own record straight
- Repeat on a schedule, not after errors
Check each directory against the ledger on a schedule rather than when something goes wrong, because the error you find by accident is the one a casting office already saw.
Other media, other ledgers
A stage credit is a production, a venue and the dates you performed, and it needs its own fields. The page on rehearsal and the run shows why a stage production's cast is a sequence rather than a set.
Film credits are simpler: one release and one credit roll. The page on how a film performance is assembled explains the coverage that a credit stands for.
Award nominations, if any, are recorded from the awarding body's published list with the body, year and category. The page on how award bodies work explains why "nominated" and "won" are separate facts.
What not to record
Nothing that is not about the work. Not age, not family, not address, not health, not anything a directory might ask for "to complete the profile". Public reference projects that do carry such material argue their own case for restraint, and the policy on material about living people is the clearest statement of why less is safer.
No casting office needs it, no credit depends on it, and a directory that collects it is collecting rather than indexing. The ledger is a record of employment, and it is complete when every job is in it with its evidence.
Common questions
Do I include uncredited work?
In the ledger, yes, marked uncredited, with whatever source you have. Whether you list it publicly is a separate choice.
Where do commercials go?
In a separate ledger. They have different credit conventions, and their conflict periods matter in a way that a drama credit's do not.
The production changed its title after I shot it.
Keep the working title in its own field beside the released one. Your contract carries the old name; the credits carry the new.
How often do I update it?
When a production airs or changes status, and on a fixed pass a few times a year regardless, because platforms edit credits without telling anyone.
