Child Talent Agencies in Quebec: What Every Parent Should Know Before Signing

Your 11-year-old wants to "be on TV." An agency writes back, asks for a $400 registration fee and a photo session with their photographer. Is that normal? Here are the answers, with the sources.

I started in this business at 14, in 2020. Not through an agency, not through a portfolio, not through a photo session. During the pandemic, my mother had signed me up for an online course on making comedy sketches. I made four or five, she posted them on her Facebook, and an agent saw one go by. She found it funny and natural, she wrote to my mother, and that is how I ended up in a talent agency.

My first set was a small unpaid project, a science show for kids where I played myself. I did not learn to act there. I learned how a set works. Then some training, then auditions, then a first role in the youth series Famille Magique.

I am telling you this for a specific reason: my mother knew none of it. She made her decisions blind, much like you may be doing right now. This is the article I wish she could have read in 2020.

It will not sell you the dream, and it will not tell you to give up either.

The short answers

• A talent agent cannot charge more than 15 % of your child's gross fee, under the code of ethics of the Association québécoise des agents artistiques (AQAA).
• The minimum working age in Quebec is 14, but artistic performance is an exception written into the law. A six-year-old can legally act in a commercial, with a parent's written consent on the CNESST form.
• 25 % of the fee earned by an artist under 18 is withheld and invested until they turn 18, through the UDA's Fonds enfants-artistes. That money is not yours to touch.
• The UDA has no jurisdiction over talent agencies. Nobody "certifies" an agency in Quebec. The vetting is on you.
• No, you do not need an agency to start, and you certainly do not need one that bills you before booking anything.

What exactly is a talent agency?

A talent agency represents artists to productions. It receives role requests (the breakdowns), submits its artists, negotiates fees and takes a commission on the contracts it lands. It is paid by the artist, not by the production.

Four different players get constantly mixed up in parents' minds. Here is who does what.

Pay attention to that last column. When the same company shows up in two rows of this table, start asking questions. An agency that also sells classes to its own talent is not doing anything illegal, but its financial interest is no longer aligned with yours.

How old does a child have to be to act in Quebec?

There is no minimum age to act. Since June 1, 2023, the legal working age in Quebec is 14, but the law carves out an explicit exception for a child working as a creator or performer in an artistic production field. A baby can legally appear in a commercial.

What changes under 14 is the paperwork. The employer must obtain your written consent on the CNESST form, which lists the tasks, the maximum number of hours per week and the child's availability. They must keep it for three years. Any change requires new consent.

Three more rules apply to any child still subject to mandatory schooling, so up to age 16:

• No work during class hours.
• Maximum 17 hours per week during the school year.
• Maximum 10 hours from Monday to Friday. In summer, those limits fall away.

The UDA layers its own rules on top. Its collective agreements contain an entire chapter of special conditions governing children, and the length of a child's working day varies with age. Auditions for a school-age child are normally held after class hours, unless the parent or the school agrees otherwise.

What this means for you: if a production asks you to pull your child out of school with no written arrangement, that is not a sign your child matters. It is a sign the production is badly run.

How do you become an actor at 12, 13, 15 or 16?

The process is the same at all those ages. What changes is the kind of roles on offer and the amount of paperwork. It comes down to four steps.

• A recent, simple photo taken on a phone. Natural light, neutral background, no makeup, no retouching. A casting director wants to know what your child looks like today, not what a photographer can make them look like.
• Three lines of text. First name, age, height, city, languages spoken, and what the child already does (sports, music, dance, figure skating, martial arts). At this age, special skills book more commercials than acting ability does.
• A self-tape. This is now the standard audition format. More on it below.
• Apply directly. To agencies, yes, but also to background casting calls, student films and short films. In our study of 148 actors across Quebec, 46 % currently have no agency, and six out of ten contracts among the unrepresented come from two free sources: Facebook groups and word of mouth.

There is a fifth route nobody talks about, and it is the one that got me into the business: let your child make something and put it out publicly. Sketches, short videos, whatever. This is not marketing. It is simply the only way for someone in the industry to see your child act without having summoned them first. Agents and casting directors scroll Facebook, Instagram and TikTok like everyone else.

Between 16 and 18 the market tightens: your teen is no longer "the kid" and not yet "the young adult." It is the most thankless stretch and it is normal. It loosens up around 18.

Does your child need an agency to get auditions?

No. An agency gives access to requests that are never posted publicly, and it negotiates on your behalf. That is real and it has value. But it guarantees no work, and waiting for one before you start means putting everything on hold.

In our study, 30 % of actors who have an agency received three auditions or fewer from that agency in a year. One in eight received zero. An agency is not a tap you turn on.

For a child, there is still one strong argument in favour of a good agency: it knows the collective agreements, it knows what a fee should be, and it will say no to a production that runs past the permitted hours. That is a service you cannot easily provide yourself.

How much does a talent agent take in Quebec?

A talent agent normally takes 15 % of the gross fee. The code of ethics of the Association québécoise des agents artistiques (AQAA) sets that ceiling, calculated on the fee obtained, excluding the producer's contribution, per diems, GST and QST.

So on a $1,000 fee, the agency takes $150 and your child keeps $850, minus union deductions and the Fonds enfants-artistes withholding where it applies.

Two caveats few people will mention:

• That ceiling is not a law. It is a professional association's code of ethics. An agency that belongs to no association is not bound by it.
• Commission is not the only cost. In our study, 39 % of represented actors had paid more than $300 in fees to their agency over the past 12 months, on top of commission.

Can an agency charge you up front?

Yes, it is legal, and plenty of serious agencies charge an annual file fee. So the problem is not that fees exist. The problem is the proportion.

Here is the test I give parents, and it is the only one you really need.

Ask yourself one question: if this agency booked no work at all this year, would it still make money off me?

If the answer is yes, your child is not the talent. Your child is the customer. An agency whose revenue comes mostly from registrations, mandatory classes, photo sessions with an imposed photographer and "portfolio fees" has no economic reason to book your child anything.

An agency whose revenue comes from commission has exactly the same incentive you do.

How can you tell if a talent agency in Quebec is legitimate?

This needs saying plainly, because nobody says it: the UDA has no jurisdiction over the activities of talent agencies. It says so itself. No body issues talent agency licences in Quebec. There is no "official list of good agencies."

What does exist are verifiable reference points. The UDA publishes the lists of agencies that are members of the AQAA and the APRAQ, along with a code of ethics for talent agencies. That is the most solid starting point you have.

Then run through this eight-point check.

• The agency appears on one of the UDA's lists (AQAA or APRAQ), or it clearly explains why it does not.
• It offers UDA contracts. A serious agency works with signatory producers.
• The contract is in writing, with a term, a commission rate and a way out. Read the automatic renewal clause.
• No obligation to buy photos from an imposed supplier. A recommendation, fine. A requirement, no.
• No mandatory classes sold by the agency itself as a condition of representation.
• You have an address, a website, names and verifiable productions. Type the name of an artist on their roster into Google and see whether they actually work.
• They answered this question: "How many children of the same age and type as mine do you currently represent?" If the answer is 60, your child will be 60th on the email list.
• You were not recruited in a shopping mall or through an unsolicited DM. Reputable agencies do not recruit that way.

If you are searching for reviews of a specific agency, you will not find much, and that is precisely the problem with this industry. Replace the review hunt with the eight points above. They are more reliable than an anonymous comment in a Facebook group.

How do you sign your child with a talent agency?

Almost every Quebec agency has an application form on its site. That is the right door. Do not show up at the office unannounced, and do not send the same generic email to 15 agencies on the same day.

What a child's submission should contain:

• One headshot and one full-body photo, recent and natural.
• First name, last name, date of birth, height, city, languages.
• Special skills, one line each.
• Your real availability as a parent. This is the variable agencies weigh silently. A wonderful child whose parent can never make a Tuesday afternoon will not work.
• A 30-second self-tape, only if the agency asks for one.

What it should not contain: a $400 professional portfolio, an inflated résumé, retouched fashion photos. At nine years old, those hurt more than they help.

How much does a child actor earn in Quebec?

It depends entirely on the type of contract, and there is no such thing as a "child actor salary." Minimum fees are set by the collective agreements the UDA negotiates, sector by sector: commercials pay better than scripted fiction, background work pays the least, and residuals can exceed the original fee on a commercial that runs for a long time.

Here is the part almost nobody knows, and it is good news: since January 1, 2016, a minimum of 25 % of the fee and residuals earned by an artist under 18 is withheld and invested in their name through the Fonds enfants-artistes, administered by the Caisse de sécurité des artistes. The money goes into safe instruments such as guaranteed investment certificates, and the withholding stops at 18. It does not apply to background work contracts under the UDA-AQPM agreement.

In practice: a quarter of what your child earns is not yours, will never be yours, and waits for them at 18. It is a protection, not a tax. It is also an excellent way to open a calm conversation about money at home.

Do not build a family budget on any of this. The median employment income for artists in Quebec was $26,631 in 2020. For a child, the work is occasional by definition.

Does a child need a UDA card?

No, not to start, and it almost always works the other way around: the contract leads to the card, not the card to the contract.

A child enters through permissionnaire status: not a member, but the UDA issues a work permit for one specific engagement. Each UDA contract performed accumulates credits. Then comes membre stagiaire (apprentice member), and finally membre actif (active member) at 30 credits.

So the child who shoots a commercial this spring will simply be a permissionnaire. There is nothing to arrange in advance.

Are acting classes for kids necessary?

Classes help, but not for the reason you think. They do not book roles. They do three far more useful things: they confirm the child actually enjoys this, they make them comfortable in front of a camera and an unfamiliar adult, and they give them a place where failure costs nothing.

A theatre class is not the same thing as an on-camera class. Theatre teaches the body, the voice, presence. Camera teaches restraint, continuity, and doing the same thing ten times in a row. Both are good. They do not prepare a child for the same audition.

Be wary of any class sold as a shortcut. If it promises a meeting with agents, a "discovery night" in front of a panel, or privileged access to castings, it is no longer a class. It is a sales channel.

What is a self-tape, and how do you shoot one with a child?

A self-tape is an audition filmed at home and sent to the casting director. It is now the most common audition format, and knowing how to shoot one properly is worth more than a year of classes.

The essentials come down to five points:

• A plain wall, grey, beige or pale blue. Not the kitchen, not a kid's bedroom, no posters.
• Light in front, not behind. Window facing the child. A window behind them and all you see is a silhouette.
• Sound before picture. A phone two metres away in a quiet room beats a nice camera in a room that echoes. Turn off the ventilation.
• Frame to mid-chest, camera at the child's eye level, which is lower than you think. Shoot horizontally.
• You read the other lines, standing right beside the lens, quietly. You should be audible, but not as loud as the child.

Two takes, send the better one, name the file FirstName-LastName_Role_Production.mp4. Do not add music, titles or editing. And do not make your child do twenty takes: the third is almost always better than the twelfth.

The question parents do not dare ask

Is this good for my child?

It can be enormously good. A set teaches punctuality, focus, teamwork, and how to take direction without taking it personally. I learned those things at 14 on a shoot and they serve me every single day, well beyond acting.

But this trade is built out of rejection, and a child cannot tell the difference between "they wanted someone taller" and "I am not good enough." You are the one who has to do that translation, every time.

Three rules, from the point of view of the one who was the child:

• Never tell your child why they did not get the role if you do not know. Say "they were looking for something else." It is true nine times out of ten.
• School comes first, and say it out loud, in front of the child, in front of the agency, in front of the production.
• The day they no longer want to go, you stop. No negotiating. That is your only real protection against everything else.

Sources

• CNESST, Workers under 14
• Act respecting the regulation of work by children (Bill 19), assented to June 1, 2023
• Protecteur du citoyen, Working at 14: what the law allows
• Union des artistes, Talent agents and Who can become a member
• Union des artistes, How the Fonds enfants-artistes works
• Code of ethics of the Association québécoise des agents artistiques (AQAA)
• Castflow study of 148 actors across Quebec, August and September 2026

This article is not legal advice. For a specific situation, contact the CNESST or a legal advisor.