IMDbPro Feature Proposal – Give Actors Control Over Their Public Filmographies

Dear IMDb Product and Leadership Team,

I am writing as a professional actor and a "paying" IMDbPro member to propose what I believe would be a genuinely valuable improvement to IMDb's services for industry professionals.

I fully respect IMDb's commitment to maintaining an accurate and comprehensive historical record of film and television productions. However, I strongly believe that this commitment should coexist with a reasonable degree of autonomy and sovereignty for actors over how their professional careers are publicly presented.

An actor's IMDb page is far more than a historical record. It serves as a professional portfolio, a calling card to casting directors, agents, managers and producers, and an important tool for securing future employment.

As actors develop professionally, certain credits may no longer reflect their abilities, experience or career direction. In some cases, actors are even credited in productions despite their entire performances having been removed from the final release.

I have personally experienced this with two television productions in which my performances were completely cut, despite my name remaining in the end credits.

I am not suggesting that IMDb erase these productions or remove factual information from its historical database.

Instead, I propose introducing an optional IMDbPro feature allowing verified actors to select which credits appear on their public-facing personal filmographies, while preserving the complete, accurate records within IMDb's underlying database and individual production pages.

This would give actors greater control over their professional presentation without compromising the integrity of IMDb's historical records.

IMDb already recognises the importance of professional autonomy by allowing members to select their featured credits, manage photographs, choose their displayed professions and control the visibility of certain personal information. Extending this philosophy to filmography display preferences seems a natural and valuable progression.

I believe actors, particularly "paying" IMDbPro members who invest in the platform to develop their careers, deserve meaningful control over how their professional identities are represented.

This is not about concealing history. It is about recognising that a comprehensive entertainment database and a carefully curated professional portfolio serve two different purposes, and IMDb has the opportunity to support both.

Such a feature could meaningfully improve IMDbPro's value to working professionals, enhance member satisfaction and further establish the platform as a service that empowers the very people whose careers it documents.

I would be grateful if this proposal could be forwarded to the appropriate product development or senior leadership team for consideration, or explored as a potential IMDbPro Labs feature.

Thank you for your time and for considering a suggestion that I believe could benefit actors across the industry.