My first job was touring with a theatre in education company based in North Yorkshire and I worked with them on and off for three years. I discovered them via a casting breakdown I saw in The Stage, and joined them before I attended drama school.

At that point, the only training I had was a BTEC in performing arts. After five years of secondary school and four years at college, my only focus was working as a professional actor, and when I saw that casting breakdown, I knew this was exactly the kind of work I wanted. The only problem was that I discovered that they were only accepting submissions from actors who had trained at an accredited drama school and could drive. I couldn’t boast either of these qualifications. 

I hounded this poor theatre company relentlessly until they finally gave in and offered me a chance to audition. I suspect this was more to stop me emailing them all the time. The audition was a gruelling half-day workshop with a solo audition, but I kept in mind how hard I had fought to be there. 

I was surrounded by drama school graduates and I felt like an impostor, but I used that feeling to work even harder. I stayed focused and I pushed myself to the front whenever the opportunity presented itself.

Did it all pay off? To be truthful, I was not initially given the job. However, a few weeks after receiving the rejection letter, which was incredibly kind, I was offered the tour at the last minute as the actor they had chosen over me was deemed to be “not delivering”.

Looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing about that part of my career. I had no formal training, no professional experience, but I didn’t stop until I was offered the chance to audition and prove myself. I worked hard on every single tour I was offered and learned more than I ever thought I would. I think of that time as an apprenticeship, and I truly believe that experience was the reason I was later accepted to drama school. In my current career, I do my best to continue to work hard, stay focused and look for opportunities wherever they may be, and that would be my advice to any other actor, whether they have come through a formal training route or not.

CV: Haydn O’Reilly

Age: 43
Training: Rose Bruford College
Theatre includes: The Last Tycoon (Ruby in the Dust), The Sherlock Holmes Experience (Les Enfants Terribles), school tours of Setpoint and Aim Higher and various pantos, including Sleeping Beauty and Goldilocks and the Three Bears
TV includes: Casualty (BBC), Through Tasha’s Eyes, Heads or Tails (Short Films)
Agent: Self-represented