50 Secrets Nobody Tells You in Hollywood
Mike Kimmel
Ben Rose Creative Arts (2025)
ISBN: 978-1953057181
Reviewed by Sarah Osman for Reader Reviews (12/2025)
Actor Mike Kimmel’s guide, 50 Secrets Nobody Tells You in Hollywood: The Working Actor’s Guide to Avoiding Pitfalls and Supercharging Your Career, is exactly as it sounds. The book, a mixture of practical tips, insider knowledge, and inspirational quotes from famous actors, is designed to serve as a survival guide for actors trying to make it.
I’m from (and currently live) in Los Angeles. I know many actors and folks working in the industry. While I myself do not work directly with studios, I work on the periphery as a film and TV critic, so I was curious to see how Kimmel approached the topic of “making it in Hollywood.”
What makes Kimmel’s guide so valuable is that it’s not about “making it.” The book is about how to have a career as a successful, working actor. Kimmel doesn’t give pretentious acting tips or useless advice on how to network. Instead, his advice focuses on tips like diversifying your talents beyond film (and finding agents for your different skill sets), why you should get a day job, why taking a stage combat class is valuable, and how to navigate criticism. At the same time, he also gives tips that qualify as common sense, yet surprisingly many people do not follow. A few of these tidbits include why you shouldn’t wear a ton of perfume to an audition, why you shouldn’t spend money you don’t have, and why you should learn to listen carefully. And there are some tips that are more acting specific, like learning what your type is and playing to that part.
Interestingly, many of Kimmel’s tips work for other careers as well. For instance, being a good listener is needed in any job and for any relationship. Having good manners will open doors for you regardless of what work you do. Avoiding toxic people will save you a lot of headaches. Jealousy will get you nowhere. You should focus on yourself and what you’re doing, rather than on what everyone else is. They are the ones who get ahead.
While Kimmel’s guide is indeed useful for actors, it’s helpful to anyone trying to get ahead in their careers. After all, many of the things that make one a good actor (listening, collaboration, and patience) are skills needed for many fields.
Best of all, Kimmel’s prose is succinct, direct, and funny. He doesn’t waste time with rambling anecdotes or confusing metaphors. And while acting is a creative field, it’s also a business. Knowing how the business works and how to navigate it is crucial, and that’s exactly what 50 Secrets does.