Own the link, not a profile on someone else's platform. Update it the minute your look changes.
Not a profile on ModelMayhem or Actors Access.
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The basics
A model portfolio website is a site on your own domain that holds your book at one link you control: your strongest images, your stats, your showreel and a way to reach you. It is not a profile on ModelMayhem or Actors Access, and it is not a PDF comp card you email around.
Agencies, scouts and casting directors open the link, usually on a phone, and see current work in the order you chose.
Why Pixpa
Templates built for the book, not the blog.
200+ designer-made layouts that put full-bleed images first, with your showreel playing inline.
Your own domain, not a platform profile.
The link is yours. Keep it after you leave an agency, and the SEO accrues to your name.
Made to open on a phone.
Scouts and casting directors scroll on mobile, so every template serves a device-right image size and a heavy frame never stalls on cellular.
Real people on chat.
When something breaks the night before a submission, a person who knows the editor answers, not a bot.
“It really is easy to build a beautiful website quickly and easily. The user interface is so logical.”
Inspiration
Live model and actor sites built on Pixpa, not a best-of list. Open any of them and see how the same editor handles a fashion book, a commercial reel and an acting résumé.
Templates
Filter by discipline, not color. The model and actor templates lead with the image and carry an inline showreel, a stats block and a contact path out of the box.
Start from one and change anything: move any block, rewrite the type scale, drop into custom CSS or HTML when the editor runs out.
“It’s really easy to use, has beautiful templates and updates in real time. It also has beautiful options for various industries.”
Step by step
Six steps, under an hour if your images are picked.
Pick your strongest 12 to 20 images.
Range over volume: one beauty shot, one editorial, one commercial, one full-length beats forty similar frames.
Choose a model or actor template.
Filter by discipline first. Color and type are the easiest things to change later.
Build the pages that matter: Portfolio, Stats, Reel, Contact.
Add an About page only if it earns its place.
Set your images up properly.
Upload at full resolution and let the platform serve the right size per device, so the link opens fast on a scout’s phone.
Connect your domain.
Bring one you own, or take the free custom domain included for the first year on annual billing.
Publish, then handle SEO.
Use the SEO Manager to write titles and descriptions so your name ranks for itself.
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For what goes inside the book itself, see the guide to making a modeling portfolio.
Standards
Five things separate a book that gets submissions from one that just sits online.
Lead with range, not with your newest shoot.
A booker decides in the first three frames whether you fit the job in front of them. Open with the images that show what you can be cast as, fashion, commercial, fitness, plus-size, whatever your actual market is, in the order that reads clearest.
Show the stats a booker needs.
Height, measurements, hair, eyes, location. A book that hides its stats makes the agency do extra work, and extra work loses submissions.
Keep the showreel short and current.
A two-minute reel of recent work beats a ten-minute montage. For actors this matters most: casting stops watching early.
Load fast on a phone.
Most submissions are opened on mobile. This is a delivery problem, not a design one, and it is the most common reason a good book underperforms.
Make contact obvious.
One clear way to reach you or your agency, above the fold, not buried on a separate page.
A live site also does what a comp card used to, without a reprint: update a stat or swap a shot and the link is current the same minute. Keep the comp card for go-sees if you like, and see what belongs on one in the guide to the model comp card.
For actors
An actor website carries the three things casting asks for in one link: current headshots, a showreel that plays inline, and a resume they can read without downloading anything.
It sits on your own domain alongside your Actors Access or Spotlight profile, not instead of it, and it is the link you put on a self-tape submission or in an email to a casting director. Same editor, same templates, built for the acting book instead of the modeling one.
Before you decide
It looks powerful. Is it going to be a lot to figure out?
Models tell us the same thing: the editor is easy, and then they find there’s a lot under it. You don’t have to touch most of it. Start from a model template that already has the book, the stats block and the reel laid out, change your images and your name, and publish. The depth is there when you want it, not in your way when you don’t. If you do get stuck, the chat is a real person, usually within minutes.
Can I get my showreel up without a fight?
Your reel embeds from YouTube or Vimeo and plays inline on the page, with no separate video hosting to buy. If an embed ever misbehaves, that is a two-minute chat fix, not a ticket you wait a day on.
Why pay for this when my agency gives me a page?
Because the agency page is theirs, and it goes away when you leave. Your own model portfolio website stays yours across every agency, ranks for your name in search, and carries no one else’s branding. The agency page is a listing. This is the link you build a career on.
Answers
A modeling portfolio holds your strongest and most varied images, a headshot, a full length, editorial and commercial work, along with your stats and a way to contact you. Online, it also carries a showreel and links to your agency profiles.
Twelve to twenty images is plenty for a website. A booker wants range and judgment, not volume. A tight edit reads as professional, while a hundred near-identical frames reads as unfiltered.
A website does most of what a printed comp card did and updates instantly. Keep a comp card for in-person go-sees, and use the site as the link you send everywhere else.
An actor website is a site on your own domain with your headshots, showreel and resume at one link, used for self-tape submissions and casting enquiries. It complements a casting profile like Actors Access or Spotlight rather than replacing it.
Most freelance models and actors own their own site rather than relying on an agency page, so the link stays theirs if they switch agencies. Pixpa has a 15-day free trial with no card and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Yes. Pixpa's store is built in and takes zero commission on any plan, so a model doing prints, creator content or UGC work can sell from the same site.
Yes, if you want the link to look professional and stay yours. Pixpa includes a free custom domain for the first year on annual billing, or you can connect one you already own.
Get started
One link, on your own domain, that you update the minute your look or your reel changes.
15 days · No card required · 30-day money-back