What should a UK actor contract include?

A UK actor contract should name the parties, the booking, the deliverables, usage of the performance and likeness, exclusivity, fees and VAT, who holds the performers' rights versus copyright in the film, a liability cap, and what happens if a booked date is unused. Sign it before the call.

This page is England and Wales first. Performers' rights and copyright under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 are UK-wide. Off-payroll working (IR35) is a UK tax rule and only matters when you book into an organisation as a contractor through your company. The money-claim route for an unpaid invoice is the England and Wales procedure in Client won't pay a freelance invoice. Typical brand, studio, agency and production bookings are business-to-business. Do not paste consumer cooling-off onto a company brief.

This page is screen, stage, commercial, corporate and promotional acting. It is not voice-over and not influencer posts. Those jobs sit on their own pages.

Contracts.io has no actor template. Start from a freelancer agreement or a services agreement. Those papers already have fee, usage, cancellation and IP slots. A promotional appearance can sit next to an influencer agreement. A filmed day can sit next to a videography contract. Stills reuse can sit next to a photo licence. Repeat bookings can hang a statement of work under standing terms. Company-to-company contractor work can start from an independent contractor agreement. If you are sharing an unreleased script or campaign before the deal is signed, a mutual NDA sits next to it. Contracts for actors is the shorter audience page. What should a UK voice actor contract include? is the voice sibling. What should a UK influencer contract include? is the promotional sibling. What should a UK videography contract include? is the filmed sibling.

Twelve blocks finish this paper:

The counts, windows and 50% split are examples of how to write the list, not prices we charge. Write the numbers you actually use.

Sign before the call. Should I start work before the contract is signed? is the day-one rule.

Name the job, the dates, the call time, rehearsal or fitting days, overtime, travel, and who supplies wardrobe, hair and makeup. “Some acting” is not a list. “One UK TV commercial, 14 November, call 07:30 at the named studio, one fitting the day before, two looks, no overtime unless quoted” is a list. Extra days, a second market and a buyout into a new territory are a change of scope, quoted first.

You deliver the performance on the day. The finished edit is their production. Write whether they must show you a usage select before it airs — practice, not a statute.

Write nine things:

• Job. Commercial or advertising, branded content, corporate video, a TV or film day-player or short booking at a high level, a theatre or stage short engagement at a high level, a promotional appearance. A supermarket TV spot is not an internal explainer.
• Days. Shoot days, rehearsal, fittings. Named dates. A fitting day is a day or it is not.
• Call time. When and where you must be. A late call that becomes an overtime day is a quote, not a courtesy.
• Overtime. Whether hours beyond the named day are extra, and at what agreed rate. There is no default UK overtime statute we cite for a freelance acting booking. Write the rate you both use.
• Travel. Who pays travel, overnight and per diem. Practice, not a statute.
• Wardrobe, hair and makeup. Who supplies them. Whether a look is included. A second look is a change of scope if you wrote one.
• What is out of scope. A second SKU, a live attend, a theatrical trailer, a buyout into the US, AI training or a synthetic likeness.
• Self-tape / casting. The audition is not the booking. The contract starts when they book you.
• Delivery. Performance on the day versus the finished edit. Usage selects of likeness or image named if they reuse stills.

Example

The Talent will deliver the Performance on the dates, at the call times and in the looks in SchedulescheduleA schedule is an annex to the contract that holds the detail: fees, dates, deliverables, service levels. It is part of the agreement if the main body says so. An order-of-precedence line should say what happens if the schedule and the clauses collide. Swap a schedule only by the variation method the contract names.More in the glossary 1. Rehearsal and fitting days in that Schedule are paid days. Overtime, extra days, a second market, a live attend and AI training or a synthetic likeness are out of scope and will be quoted first. The Client warrants the script, claims and locations it supplies.

In Plain English: they get the named days. A new day is a new fee. They stand behind the brief. You do not throw in a US buyout as a courtesy.

A change-control line stops a “quick extra scene” becoming unpaid work. Scope creep and change control is the longer page.

Write the fee, whether it is a day rate or a usage buyout, whether VAT is extra, when invoices go out, and the usage window the fee buys. VAT is added if you are VAT-registered; that is practice, not a rate we invent. A day rate is not a buyout. Residuals are extra sums when the spot runs again — practice, not a statute we invent. For a UK business client, late commercial payment carries statutory interest.

Payment terms should name:

• the fee and the basis — a day rate, a project fee, or a named usage buyout;
• whether VAT is extra;
• when invoices go out — on signature, on the shoot day, or in named stages;
• how many days to pay — net 14 or net 30Net 30Net 30 means the client has 30 days from the invoice date to pay.More in the glossary;
• a pause right if an undisputed invoice is overdue, including a right not to attend a further day;
• that any licence or assignment of the performers' rights passes only on full payment.

Usage is the commercial heart of an acting booking. Write media, territory and term. “In perpetuity, all media, worldwide” is a buyout heading, not a licence. A 12-month UK TV and VOD window is a licence. Paid amplification, a second territory, a theatrical trailer and stills reuse of your likeness are extra uses. Price them.

We do not print Equity, Spotlight or any other rate card. Write the numbers you actually use.

A deposit before booked dates are reserved is a common shape, not a statutory rate. A 50% invoice on signature and 50% after the shoot is an example of how to split a project fee, not a price we charge. There is no default UK right to keep a deposit; both sides have to agree it. See Client cancelled: can you keep the deposit?.

For a qualifying business-to-business debt, the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 sets statutory interest. GOV.UK on late commercial payments states the rate as 8% plus the Bank of England base rate. We do not print the current base rate. Once that interest runs, a fixed recovery sum is also due: £40 under £1,000, £70 from £1,000 to under £10,000, and £100 at £10,000 or more, plus any reasonable recovery costs not met by that sum. See late payment interest.

Example

The fee is the figure in Schedule 1. VAT is charged in addition where the Talent is VAT-registered. 50% is due on signature and reserves the dates. The balance is due within 14 days of the last shoot day. The Talent may withhold attendance at a further day while any undisputed invoice is more than 7 days overdue. Any licence or assignment of the Talent’s performers' property rights passes only on payment in full. Statutory interest and compensation on late commercial payment apply where the 1998 Act applies.

In Plain English: they pay to reserve the diary. They have two weeks after the shoot for the rest. After a week late, you do not attend a further day unpaid. They do not get unpaid usage. A business client can owe the statutory interest and the fixed recovery sum.

The chase sequence is Client won't pay a freelance invoice.

Write the notice both sides use to cancel a booked date, what unused days cost, and the kill feekill feeA kill fee is a payment due to a creator or supplier when a client cancels a project before it is finished.More in the glossary if they stop a started job. There is no default UK right to keep a depositdepositA deposit is money paid up front, before the main work or the final invoice.More in the glossary or charge unused days; both sides have to agree the sums. Typical brand and production bookings are B2B. For a consumer, a 14-day right can apply, and the term must be fair.

A common freelance shape — not a statutory rule — is:

• a deposit to reserve named dates;
• short-notice cancellation of reserved dates charged in full or in part;
• a kill fee if they stop after work has started, covering work done plus a named unused-time charge;
• postponement is not a free rewrite of the diary;
• talent cancellation: write the notice you give, and how a substitute or a moved date works.

Force majeureforce majeureForce majeure is a clause that pauses a party’s duties when something outside both sides’ control stops the work.More in the glossary sits at a high level. If illness, a location shutdown or an event neither side could reasonably control stops a shoot, write who can postpone, whether the date moves, and that unused booked days still follow the kill-fee line. FrustrationfrustrationFrustration discharges a contract when an unforeseen event makes performance impossible or something radically different from what was agreed. In England and Wales the test is Davis Contractors Ltd v Fareham UDC [1956] AC 696. Taylor v Caldwell (1863) 3 B & S 826 is the classic illustration: a music hall burned down, so the hire could not go ahead.More in the glossary under the Law Reform (Frustrated Contracts) Act 1943 is a last-resort statute when performance becomes impossible. Do not treat a change of script as frustration. See force majeure and frustration.

For a business client the charge must not be a penalty. A genuine pre-estimate of lost booked time is the shape that holds; a figure designed to punish is the shape that fails. See Cavendish Square Holding BV v Talal El Makdessi. We do not invent a holding beyond that.

Example

A deposit of the sum in Schedule 1 reserves the dates in that Schedule. If the Client cancels reserved dates on less than 48 hours’ notice, those dates are charged. If the Client ends the job after work has started, the Talent is due the work done at the agreed rate plus the unused-time charge in Schedule 1. A postponement agreed in writing moves the dates; it does not waivewaiverA waiver is a choice not to enforce a right this time, without rewriting the contract. Accepting late work once does not, by itself, kill a time-is-of-the-essence clause if a no-waiver line is present. Waiver is not a variation: Rock Advertising Ltd v MWB [2018] UKSC 24 still requires the agreed method for a change of terms.More in the glossary the unused-time charge unless Schedule 1 says so.

In Plain English: unused booked days are charged if you wrote that. Starting the shoot and then stopping still costs them the work done and the named kill fee. Moving the date is a written change, not a free pass.

The longer consumer-versus-business page is Client cancelled: can you keep the deposit?. Cancellation and kill fee is the clause page.

You hold the performers' rights unless you assign them. Copyright in the film sits with its authors: the producer and the principal director. Those are two piles. Paying the fee moves neither of them. An assignment of the performer's property rights is not effective unless it is in writing, signed.

CDPA 1988 s.180 confers rights on a performer by requiring consent to the exploitation of the performance. A performance includes a dramatic or musical performance and a reading or recitation of a literary work, given live by one or more individuals. A commercial shoot, a corporate film day and a stage engagement sit in that pile. The rights in Part II are independent of any copyright in the script, or in any film or sound recording of the performance.

CDPA 1988 s.182 says a performer's rights are infringed by a person who, without consent, records the whole or a substantial part of a qualifying performance from the live performance. Section 182A says the same for making a copy of a recording of that performance — the reproduction right. A client who films the day, then copies the take into an edit, needs your consent for both steps. The contract is that consent, written.

Copyright in the film is a different pile. CDPA 1988 s.9(2)(ab) says the author of a film is taken to be the producer and the principal director. Section 178 says the producer is the person by whom the arrangements necessary for the making of the film are undertaken. Combined with s.11, those authors are the first owners of copyright in the film unless the employee exception applies. A freelance actor is not, by performing, an author of the film. Do not write that the producer alone owns film copyright.

Copyright in a still photograph is a third pile. A photograph is an artistic work irrespective of artistic quality. The photographer is the author. First ownership follows s.11: the author is the first owner, unless they made it as an employee in the course of employment — then the employer is the first owner, unless agreed otherwise. Your face in that still is not, by itself, copyright you own. Usage of the likeness is the licence of your performers' rights and the stills line in the schedule.

The script is a fourth pile. Literary copyright sits with the writer under s.11 unless they assigned it. Do not promise you can assign a script you did not write. See intellectual property assignment.

Keep five piles:

• The performance. Your performers' property rights. Licensed or assigned on full payment.
• The film. Copyright with the producer and the principal director as authors, unless otherwise agreed or the employee exception applies.
• The stills. Copyright usually with the photographer. Likeness use named in the schedule.
• Unused takes and outtakes. Not included unless the paper says so.
• Libraries. Your showreel, a character you already use, a look from another job. Licensed for this job as pre-existing materialspre-existing materialsPre-existing materials are tools, libraries or work the supplier already owned, which are licensed for the job rather than handed over.More in the glossary, not assigned.

A US “work for hirework for hireWork for hire is a phrase, common on US-style papers, meaning the client is treated as the author and owner of the work from the start.More in the glossary” heading does not do that work in England and Wales. See work for hire. Write licence or assignment in English words.

Example

Performers' property rights in the Performance remain with the Talent. On receipt of full payment the Client is granted the licence in Schedule 1 to use the Performance and the named likeness selects for the media, territory and duration named in that Schedule. Until then the Client has no licence to copy, issue, rent or make the Performance available. Assignment of the Talent’s performers' property rights is not included unless Schedule 1 says so. Copyright in the film sits with the producer and the principal director as authors and first owners under CDPA 1988 ss.9(2)(ab) and 11 unless Schedule 1 says otherwise. Unused takes and pre-existing materials stay with the Talent.

In Plain English: they may use the named performance and named stills as the schedule says, once they have paid. They do not own your performers' rights. They do not get film copyright from you, because you were not the author of the film. A buyout of the performance is extra. Your unused takes stay yours.

If they publish unpaid work, see Client using your work without paying.

LicencelicenceA licence is permission to use work in an agreed way, without taking ownership away from the person who made it.More in the glossary the named use unless they must own the rights. An assignment is a buyout: writing, signed, on full payment. A licence is permission. Most commercials need a licence of named media, territory and term — not a transfer of the performers' property rights. A new window, a new territory, stills reuse and a synthetic likeness are a separate use. Price them.

An exclusive licence is a further step. CDPA 1988 s.92 is the copyright exclusive-licence rule. For performers' property rights, write exclusivity of use in English words: named media, named window, and that you will not license the same performance to anyone else for that window. Do not treat a heading as an assignment.

Moral rightsmoral rightsMoral rights are the author’s personal rights in a copyright work: to be identified as author, and not to have the work subjected to derogatory treatment. In the UK they sit in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 ss.77–80. They cannot be assigned. They can be waived in writing, signed by the person giving them up, under s.87.More in the glossary split in two. Performer moral rights under ss.205C and 205F cover identification and derogatory treatment when the performance is given in public, broadcast live, or a sound recording of it is used. They are not a film-credit right. Author moral rights in a film sit with the principal director, not with the actor who performed. A credit line on a commercial is practice; write it if you want it. A waiver of performer moral rights is a signed paper, not a heading. See moral rights and usage rights and credit.

AI training and a synthetic likeness that looks like you are a separate use. There is no UK statute we cite that names “face cloning”. Write yes or no, and the extra fee if yes. A 12-month UK TV licence is permission to run the named performance. It is not permission to build a likeness model.

Example

On full payment the Client is granted a non-exclusive licence to use the Performance and the named likeness selects in the media, territory and duration in Schedule 1. A residual, a second territory, paid amplification, unused stills and AI training or a synthetic likeness are not included unless Schedule 1 names them and the extra fee. Assignment of the Talent’s performers' property rights is not included. The Talent does not waive performer moral rights unless Schedule 1 attaches a signed waiver.

In Plain English: they can run the named performance in the named window once they have paid. Running it as a new campaign, in a new country, or through a likeness model, is extra. They cannot sell the performers' rights on. A credit stays unless you signed it away.

Contracts for voice actors and Contracts for influencers are the voice and promotional siblings for the same licence-versus-assignment split.

Name the category, the rival brands if you can, the media, and the window. Price it. An exclusivity clauseexclusivity clauseAn exclusivity clause stops one side working with other people in a named market, for a named time. In England and Wales a lock-out has to be for a fixed period: Walford v Miles [1992] 2 AC 128 is why an agreement to negotiate exclusively with no end date fails.More in the glossary that bans every booking in every category forever is the shape that fails in practice. Exclusivity is not an assignment of performers' rights and it is not a non-competenon-competeA non-compete is a promise not to do similar work for a competitor, or in a named market, for a period after the job.More in the glossary by another name unless you wrote it that way.

A working exclusivity line answers five things:

• Category. Supermarkets, not “retail and anything adjacent”.
• Names. Named rivals where you can. “Direct competitors” without names is how a later argument starts.
• What is banned. Paid commercials, a face on pack, a live attend — write which. Your existing showreel is a different pile.
• Media. The media in the deal, or every channel they put your face on.
• Window. During the campaign and a named period after. Thirty or ninety days after the last use is a common freelance shape, not a statutory period.

A right of first refusalright of first refusalA right of first refusal gives one party the chance to match a third-party offer before the other side can take it. It is not exclusivity and not a right of first offer. Write the trigger, the terms that must be shared, the days to match, and whether silence is a waiver. Keep the window short.More in the glossary is a narrower tool: they get a chance to match another brand in that category before you take it. A most favoured nationmost favoured nationA most favoured nation clause says the supplier will not give another customer a better price or term without offering the same to this client. It is a pricing promise, not exclusivity. Draft the comparison: same scope, same volume, same period. An open-ended MFN across every client and every product is hard to police and easy to breach.More in the glossary line is a price promise, not exclusivity. Do not mix the three in one sentence.

An exclusivity clause that stops you working for anyone else can look like employment when you book through a personal company into a brand, agency, studio or production. If they want a wide exclusive, price it and keep it narrow. See IR35 contract clauses checklist.

Example

During the Term and for 30 days after the last permitted use, the Talent shall not perform paid work in the category and for the named brands in Schedule 1, in the media in that Schedule. The Talent’s existing showreel and unpaid portfolio use are not included. This clause is not an assignment of performers' rights and does not stop the Talent working in other categories.

In Plain English: for the named window you do not take paid work for the named rivals in that category. You can still work other categories. They did not buy your rights by buying exclusivity.

Contracts for agencies is the campaign sibling when an agency sits between the brand and you.

Write who the parties are. If an agent is on the paper, write the commission and who invoices. A booking confirmation should name the dates, the call, the fee and the usage window. There is no default UK agency-commission statute we cite. Both sides agree the rate. We do not invent Equity, Spotlight or any other agency code.

A working confirmation answers six things:

• Parties. Talent’s legal name, personal company if you invoice through one, agent if one is on the paper, client’s registered name. A stage name is not a party.
• Commission. If an agent is on the paper, the percentage and whether it comes off the fee or sits on top. Who sends the invoice.
• Dates. Shoot, rehearsal, fitting. Call time and location.
• Fee. Day rate or buyout, VAT, when it is due.
• Usage. Media, territory, term, stills.
• What is still open. A “plus usage TBC” line is how a later argument starts. Close it or quote it.

Self-tape and casting-call notes stay outside the deal until you are booked. The contract is for the booking, not the audition. Do not treat a casting brief as a signed licence of your likeness.

CDPA s.191B says an assignment of your performers' property rights is not effective unless it is in writing, signed by you or on your behalf. An agent who is not a party does not assign those rights by forwarding an email. If they should sign on your behalf, write that authority on the paper — that is a contractual precaution, not a second statutory formality.

Example

The parties are the Talent (or the Talent’s company named in Schedule 1) and the Client. Where an Agent is named in Schedule 1, the commission is the figure in that Schedule and the Agent invoices the Client for the fee. This agreement is the booking. A self-tape, a casting call or a “pencil” is not a booking and grants no licence of the Performance.

In Plain English: the signed paper is the booking. An audition is not. If an agent is taking commission, write the rate and who bills. Nobody assigns your performers' rights by forwarding an email.

Contracts for recruiters is a different pile — placement of employees, not a commercial booking.

Unreleased scripts, products, launch dates and embargoed assets stay private until the go-live window. Write the usual limits: a court order, or what the client has already made public. A confidentialityconfidentialityConfidentiality is a promise to keep shared information private and to use it only for the agreed purpose.More in the glossary clause is not an NDANDAAn NDA is a contract in which one or both parties agree to keep shared information confidential.More in the glossary by itself. If you are opening an unreleased script before the deal is signed, put a mutual NDA next to it.

Confidentiality on the acting agreement should name:

• the script, the product, the launch date, unreleased assets, and the fact of the campaign until go-live;
• how long the duty lasts after the shoot — the life of the remaining sensitivity, not “forever” as a slogan;
• the usual limits: a court order, information already public, or information you already held;
• whether you may name the client in a showreel. Many unreleased launches say no until the embargo lifts. See publicity and portfolio use.

An embargo is a go-live rule, not a separate statute. Write the date and time zone the spot may air, and that a leak before that time is a breach. Do not post a Story from the holding area.

A one-way NDAone-way NDAA one-way NDA is a confidentiality agreement where only one side discloses information and only the other side is bound to keep it private.More in the glossary the studio or agency sends before they will share the script is common. Read it. A clause that assigns performers' rights, or that bans you from working for anyone in their sector, is not an NDA. See NDA for UK freelancers and the NDA generator.

Example

The Talent will keep the script, Product, launch date, unreleased assets and the fact of this campaign confidential until the go-live window in Schedule 1, and will not disclose them except where required by law or a court order, or where the information is already public other than through the Talent’s breach. Showreel use of the Client’s name is not included until that window, unless Schedule 1 says so.

In Plain English: the script stays in the job until the named go-live. You do not post it early. You do not put their name on your reel until they said you could.

NDAs explained is the longer NDA page.

Headshots, measurements and casting packs are personal data. Your own invoices and showreel are typically data you control. UK GDPR Article 28 applies when a booking collects other people's data for the client. A one-line “you will comply with data protection law” is not that contract.

The split is:

• Controller. You decide why you hold your own invoices, your own CRM and the showreel you publish.
• Processor. You collect another performer's details for their cast, or you store identity documents they asked you to take. They decide the purpose; you process on their instructions.
• Article 28. Processing by a processor must be governed by a contract that is binding and that sets out the subject-matter, duration, nature and purpose, the type of personal data and categories of data subjects, and the processor terms in Article 28(3)(a)–(h). See data protection.

Typical booking data:

Do not export their cast list onto a personal laptop “to make a spreadsheet” unless the paper says so. On ending, you stop processing and return or delete what the schedule requires.

This is high-level B2B framing. We do not invent a further UK GDPR obligation beyond Article 28 and the data protection clause.

Example

Where the Talent processes personal data for the Client — including identity documents and other performers' details on a day the Talent runs for the Client — that processing is governed by the processor terms in Schedule 2. The Client is the controller. The Talent will not process those data except on the Client’s documented instructions. The Talent’s own invoices and showreel remain the Talent’s data. A casting pack the Talent sends to the Client is disclosed so the Client can consider the booking.

In Plain English: their call sheet is their data. Your own reel stays yours. A headshot you send for a booking is them considering you, not you becoming their processor of that pack.

Usually no. A brand, studio, agency or production house buying a booking in the course of business is not a consumer. Do not paste the 14-day cooling-off onto a company brief. Consumer rights only bite when the counterpartycounterpartyThe counterparty is the other side of the contract — the person or company you are making the deal with.More in the glossary is a consumer — for example a private individual booking a personal appearance wholly or mainly outside their trade.

Who the other side is splits the page:

• A business client (a company, or a person buying in the course of business). No statutory 14-day cooling-off under the 2013 Regulations. An agreed cancellation charge must not be a penalty. The 1998 Act can apply to late payment.
• A consumer (an individual buying a personal appearance wholly or mainly outside their trade). Distance and off-premises contracts carry the 14-day right. The term must be fair.

The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 give that right (regulation 29). For a service contract the period ends at the end of 14 days after the day the contract is entered into (regulation 30). Booking by email or a website, without both of you in the same place, is a distance contract.

Consumer Rights Act 2015 s.62 says an unfair term of a consumer contract is not binding on the consumer. Section 49 says a trader supplying a service must do so with reasonable care and skill. Neither section turns a company shoot into a consumer contract.

Most commercial, corporate, TV, film and promotional bookings on this page are the left-hand column. Write the paper that way.

Example

If the Client is a consumer and this agreement was made at a distance or off-premises, the Client may cancel in the cancellation period without giving a reason. For the Services that period ends at the end of 14 days after the day this agreement is entered into. This clause does not apply where the Client is buying in the course of a business.

In Plain English: an individual who booked a birthday appearance online has two weeks to walk away. A company buying a product launch does not get that statutory cooling-off.

Cap liability at a multiple of the fees. In England and Wales you cannot exclude liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence. Do not guarantee a spot will convert, a ranking, or that a platform will keep the file up. See the longer liability guide.

Limitation of liability on an acting job usually does four things:

• caps the talent’s total liability at the fees paid for that job, or a named multiple;
• excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence from that cap — Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 s.2 does not let you exclude it;
• says other negligence liability can be limited only so far as the term is reasonable;
• leaves the implied termimplied termsImplied terms are obligations the law reads into a contract even when the parties did not write them down. In England and Wales they come from statute — for business services, reasonable care and skill under the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 s.13 — or from common law where a term is necessary for business efficacy.More in the glossary that a service is performed with reasonable care and skill — Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 s.13 for B2B, Consumer Rights Act 2015 s.49 for a consumer.

We do not invent a case holding that a particular cap is reasonable. Reasonableness is a fact-specific test. A cap at the fees, with the UCTA floor left in, is the common freelance shape.

A liability cap is not an indemnityindemnityAn indemnity is a promise to cover another party's losses arising from a particular event or claim.More in the glossary. Do not sign an unlimited indemnity for “any loss arising from the spot” on a product-liability brief without pricing that risk. The client warrants its script, claims and locations; you warrant the performance is yours and that you will carry out the booking with reasonable care and skill. How a freelancer caps liability is the longer page.

Example

The Talent’s total liability under this agreement is capped at the fees paid for the Performance. Nothing in this agreement excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud. The Talent does not warrant a commercial result, a ranking, or that a platform will keep the files available.

In Plain English: if the job goes wrong, they can come for the fee, not for an open-ended loss. You still owe care and skill. You cannot write out death or injury caused by negligence. You did not promise the spot would sell the product.

Contracts for copywriters is the sibling page when the work is claims in copy rather than a performed booking.

IR35 only matters when you book into an organisation as a contractor through your company. It does not apply to a private individual buying a personal appearance. No label decides the tax. From 6 April 2021, public authorities and medium or large clients must give a status determination statement. Small private-sector clients leave that decision with your company.

Write the working practices, then work that way:

• you decide how the performance is given, within the brief;
• you can send a qualified substitute, and you have actually used one or can;
• there is no obligation on them to offer further dates, and none on you to accept them;
• you are not on their org chart, in their Slack, or in their holiday rota.

A heading that says “independent contractor” does not take you outside IR35. Chapter 10 of ITEPA 2003 (ss.61K, 61N and 61NA) puts the status determination on the public-authority or medium or large client with a UK connection. Chapter 8 and s.60A leave small private-sector clients on the older rules. See IR35 contract clauses checklist and sole trader vs limited companysole trader vs limited companyA sole trader contracts in a personal name and is personally liable. A limited company is a separate legal person; the company is on the hook, not the director, unless there is a guarantee. Switching from one to the other is a novation, not a letterhead change. IR35 / off-payroll rules can still apply to a personal service company.More in the glossary.

An exclusivity clause that stops you working for anyone else can look like employment. If they want exclusivity in a sector, price it and keep it narrow.

Most direct-to-studio commercial days never reach this heading. Agency-to-talent jobs into a medium or large end-client still should, because the end client is often an organisation.

Example

The Talent is an independent contractor. The Talent decides how the Performance is given, may send a qualified substitute, and is not obliged to accept further dates. Nothing in this agreement makes the Talent an employee, worker or agent of the Client. The parties will work in line with any status determination statement the Client is required to give.

In Plain English: the tax follows how you actually work. A label on page one does not decide it. A large company client has to give you their determination.

On Contracts.io both sides draft, negotiate and e-signe-signatureAn e-signature is any electronic way of showing agreement to a document, such as a typed name, a drawn signature or a click.More in the glossary one shared acting agreement, so the booking, the usage window and the likeness line are the version you both signed. Describe the job in a sentence. Lex, our AI host, drafts. You share one link. Nobody emails v4_final.docx back and forth.

The client opens that link. They can Accept, Counter or Decline on the same version, then both of you e-sign it. The other side never pays and does not need an account.

Start from a freelancer agreement or a services agreement. A promotional appearance can sit next to an influencer agreement. A filmed day can sit next to a videography contract. Stills reuse can sit next to a photo licence. You can also start from the AI contract generator or the contract generator. If you are sharing an unreleased script before the deal is signed, a mutual NDA sits next to it, or use the NDA generator.

That does not chase an invoice for you. It does mean the licence or IP assignmentIP assignmentAn IP assignment is a transfer of ownership in the work, so the client owns it instead of the person who made it.More in the glossary, the exclusivity clause, the kill fee and the likeness line are the words you both signed, not a line lost in email.

Free £0, then paid plans from £15 a month — see /pricing.

Try it on contracts.io: describe the booking in one sentence, share one link, and e-sign before the call.

Contracts for actors is the wider set of terms that sit around this paper. Contracts for voice actors is the voice sibling. Contracts for influencers is the promotional sibling. Contracts for videographers is the filmed sibling. Contracts for photographers is the stills sibling. Contracts for agencies is the campaign sibling. Contracts for freelancers is the delivery sibling. What goes in a freelance or contractor agreement is the shorter how-to. NDA for UK freelancers is the pitch-stage paper. Should I start work before the contract is signed? is the day-one rule.