The 19 best acting classes in NYC in 2024

Oscar winner Anne Hathaway credits this theater company and school with teaching her how to act. While most of its offerings cater to pros, its 10-week Beginners Acting I: The Basics class is open to everyone—no experience necessary. Learn fundamental acting techniques that stress spontaneity and natural behavior via exercises, monologues and scene study. The Barrow Group also produces two mainstage shows per season plus monthly readings, so you can see how good the grads are. And who knows? You might be up there with them sometime soon. 

You’ve probably heard the name of this acting school already but suffice it to say, the New York Performing Arts Academy has a proven track record when it comes to getting people from school to stage and screen. Its alumni have landed roles on hit TV shows like Orange Is the New Black and Fresh Off the Boat, with many more making careers off the back of the tuition they received here. Unleash your potential in the academy’s four-week foundation course—it covers acting for screen and stage, movement and voice, with some of the best tutors in the business. Though some of the classes here require an audition, the beginner level is open to all.

Every acting journey has to start somewhere, and The Barrow Group Acting School offers a top-quality beginning acting class to ensure that students start off on the right foot. In this class, students will learn the art of creating chemistry with fellow actors through ensemble-building games, and they will practice the art of preparing for the acting process by learning how to analyze scripts and participate in scene study exercises. This adult acting course is an ideal place to learn how to make your performances seem spontaneous and natural and the program is ideal for anyone looking to kickstart their acting career.

Renowned vocal coach Kristin Linklater built her career helping actors and amateurs find their natural voices. In fact, her technique is so well-regarded that Linklater and other experts trained in her teaching style run an entire vocal coaching program out of this Midtown Manhattan studio. The two-session Natural Voice Workshop is a natural place to start: You’ll learn to relax your body and harness your vocal vibrations to unleash the full potential of your voice ($180). Actors looking for a little more scene work might be interested in the Voice, Body, Shakespeare class, which uses vocal exercises to help you master iambic pentameter and bring the classics to life ($700 for six sessions).

As its name suggests, Actors Connection helps link performers to agents, producers and casting directors. The focus on networking extends to its classes, too: You’ll find working professionals teaching workshops in their specialty, like voice-over or commercials. Beginners might want to start with the six-session Acting 101 course ($329) to really get a handle on their technique. Plus, once you’ve registered, you’ll be added to the studio’s database and receive alerts whenever a new audition or casting call comes up.

The Essentials of Film Acting 110 course, offered by The Acting School for Film and Television, is an introductory course perfect for anyone with dreams of starring in front of the camera. This course teaches students how to build a memorable screen presence and emote with vulnerability and authenticity. This course also gives students valuable advice on navigating the film and television industry, which is notoriously difficult for new actors. This training will help students be more confident when they go in for auditions and start landing their first entry-level roles. Since this is a professional studio setting, participants will have their progress overseen by experienced directors, talent managers and casting directors, who are always on the lookout for the next big star.

If you are looking for an immersive acting class that is still beginner-friendly, consider enrolling in The New York Performing Arts Academy’s Acting for Stage, TV and Screen program. In this four-week class, you’ll work with industry insiders who will teach you the ropes of professional acting and all of the (literally) behind-the-scenes aspects of working in the industry. Students will learn how TV, stage and film acting differ and how casting directors and talent agents make final decisions concerning casting. Students will also learn how to manage and prepare for roles since so much of the hard work of acting takes place off-camera, with lessons covering scene analysis, script reading and character development. This course is an excellent way for new actors to break into the industry, get vital skills training and build networking connections.

Once you’ve completed an introductory acting course, it is time to keep your training going and enroll in a more advanced class. The Getting Specific course offered by the Barrow Group Acting School allows students to continue developing their acting talents and become more well-rounded actors. Over ten weeks, participants will play improv games, work on script analysis exercises and begin preparing monologues and scene work. This program encourages students to be more spontaneous and natural in their style and to create an effortless and relaxed persona (that is, of course, the result of careful practice and deliberate choices). If you want to learn to act like you aren’t acting, this is the course for you.

When people think of acting, they don’t often think of voice-over artists, even though the process of acting using only one’s voice is itself a real talent and a historically significant art form. In this four-week course, students will work alongside Barry Shapiro, a professional casting director, who will guide them through preparing for a career in professional commercial voice-over work. Students will get personalized feedback and access to a recording studio in which they’ll build their own VO demo reel. If the prospect of hearing your voice on a radio or TV ad sounds appealing, this course will help you make that dream into a reality.

Learning to deliver a joke can be a real challenge, and despite what the best stand-up comedians aim to have you believe, writing and delivering a routine is an immense amount of work. At the Drop-in Stand Up course offered by the Brooklyn Comedy Collective, you can get professional oversight as you learn how to do this work, including learning how to hone material, build a stage presence and respond at the moment to audience reactions. You’ll get live stage time and important feedback on your routine in this course, and because it is a drop-in class, you can come to practice whenever it fits your schedule, or you have new material you want to workshop.

Amateurs who dream of making their debut on the silver screen ought to look into this specialized acting school. Writer, producer and actor Mark Stolzenberg not only founded the school, but also teaches many of its classes. Total beginners might want to start with the Essentials of Film Acting 110 class, which covers basics like finding your eye line, projecting emotions and working on your close-up ($275 for four sessions). The Business of Acting course, which teaches newbies how to market yourself, secure auditions and create a reel, also wouldn’t be a bad idea ($300 for four sessions).

While they are most commonly associated with the circus, clowning is a storied theatrical art form (some of the most memorable roles in Shakespeare were performed by clowns). The Barrow Group Acting School seeks to keep this comedic tradition alive in their Theatrical Clown Workshop, an immersive course that will teach students the fine art of clowning. Students will learn clown essentials, such as isolating actions, interrupting their own pattern, singularity of focus, and building a relationship with the audience and setting themselves down a path to perform some of the most physical and most well-loved roles in theater.

Opened by late acting greats Herbert Berghof and Uta Hagen in 1945, HB's Greenwich Village building is always abuzz with actors, both experienced and aspiring. Though advanced classes with pros like Oscar-winner Mercedes Ruehl and Tony nominee Jessica Hecht are by audition only, all Level 1 offerings—Acting 1, Scene Study 1 and Acting with the Camera 1—are aimed at neophytes or those returning to performing after an absence. Students can sign up by trimester ($445–$645) but if you're on the fence, you can audit one session for $20.

Founded by acting teacher/TV writer-producer Kelly Kimball, this studio requires all students in its semester-long program of study ($980 for 12 weekly acting classes and three elective workshops) enroll in one of its signature offerings: an On-Camera Crash Course or a Ballistics class designed to strengthen preexisting technique through improvisation. If you aren't ready to commit to that much instruction, drop into any five Sunday classes with the Sunday Crash-Course Pass ($350). Newbies can audit a session for free, then talk one-on-one with a staff member about whether the studio is the right fit.

Opened back in 1953 by Michael Howard, a performer and director who studied with acting legends Sanford Meisner and Lee Strasberg, this stalwart school offers a number of full-time conservatory programs (Scandal's Kerry Washington is a graduate). But the studio also hosts weekly scene study classes ($265–$345 per month) and specialized workshops in long-form improv, Shakespeare, voiceovers, comedic characters, acting for TV and film and more ($345 and up) led by working pros, including some big-name actors and casting directors. Note: For most offerings, an interview and an audition are required.

Interviews and auditions are required at this venerable studio, which was opened in 1969 by Terry Schreiber and counts Edward Norton among its conservatory graduates. Newbies can choose from beginner classes like Meisner Technique I ($695 for 12 sessions), On-Camera I ($425 for six sessions) and Beginning Technique ($550 for eight sessions). The studio also mounts full-fledged productions, too, in case you want to see its students and alumni in action.

In addition to advanced training for pros, the Ted Bardy Studio offers a three-phase Beginner Meisner Acting Class ($340 per month for six months, $400 for month-to-month tuition) that immerses newcomers in the title technique, which focuses on listening, vulnerability and truthful reactions. Expect lots of exercises (classes start with the famous "Repetition Exercise") as students work their way up to the end of phase 1 with the introduction of "emotional preparation." Definitely not for dabblers!

This nonprofit cultural complex is well-known for presenting work by cutting-edge theater artists like puppet master Basil Twist, writer/director Richard Maxwell and solo star Nilaja Sun. But it also offers a wide variety of community arts classes to all ages, including acting. Its five-session Improv Comedy 101 class ($160) is perfect for amateurs who want to find out what it's like to get on stage. Students learn core skills like developing unique characters, working as a group and practicing a "yes, and" mentality.

You may have no problem cracking up your cube mates, but can you make a room full of strangers laugh? Find out in the six-week training camp run by the pros at Laughing Buddha Comedy. It includes six classes and six open-mic slots that’ll help you develop a strong five-minute set to showcase at a local comedy club toward the end of the course.