---
title: "Makeup Artist, Theatrical and Performance"
description: "Apply makeup to performers to reflect period, setting, and situation of their role."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/makeup-artist-theatrical-and-performance"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Makeup Artist, Theatrical and Performance

**Category:** Personal Care and Service · **SOC code:** 39-5091 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 39-5091.00

Apply makeup to performers to reflect period, setting, and situation of their role.

Also advertised as: Commercial Makeup Artist (Commercial MUA); Hair and Makeup Designer; Makeup Artist (MUA); Prosthetic Makeup Designer; Special Effects Makeup Artist (Special Effects MUA); Special Makeup Effects Artist; TV and Film Makeup Artist (Television and Film Makeup Artist).

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $97,150 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $46.71/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $23,360 to $167,470, with the middle half between $34,530 and $143,230
- **Total US employment:** 2,340
- **Typical entry education:** Certificate
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +6.1% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 600 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 57/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 2,340 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $23,360 |
| 25th | $34,530 |
| 50th (median) | $97,150 |
| 75th | $143,230 |
| 90th | $167,470 |
| Mean (average) | $102,240 |

### Pay by state

The 6 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| GA | $143,230 | $148,744 | 200 |
| CA | $140,870 | $127,231 | 830 |
| LA | $129,580 | $146,904 | Not published by BLS |
| NY | $97,150 | $90,020 | 190 |
| DC | $95,730 | $87,106 | 60 |
| FL | $82,400 | $79,680 | 250 |

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 4,300 in the 2025–2035 base year to 4,600 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 300 jobs, or +6.1%. Faster than average: 6.1% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 600 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Postsecondary nondegree award (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 33.3% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 28.6% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 9.5% |
| Some College Courses | 9.5% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 9.5% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 4.8% |

## What the work involves

- Clean supplies such as makeup brushes.
- Apply makeup to enhance or alter the appearance of people appearing in productions such as movies.
- Alter or maintain makeup during productions as necessary to compensate for lighting changes or to achieve continuity of effect.
- Evaluate environmental characteristics, such as venue size and lighting plans, to determine makeup requirements.
- Provide performers with makeup removal assistance after performances have been completed.
- Assess performers' skin type to ensure that makeup will not cause break-outs or skin irritations.
- Examine sketches, photographs, and plaster models to obtain desired character image depiction.
- Cleanse and tone the skin to prepare it for makeup application.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Speaking — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Management of Financial Resources — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Fine Arts — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Design — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Communications and Media — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Near Vision — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Visual Color Discrimination — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Finger Dexterity — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Artistic (A), Realistic (R), Enterprising (E).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| A — Artistic | 6.72 |
| R — Realistic | 4.33 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.08 |
| C — Conventional | 3.01 |
| S — Social | 3.00 |
| I — Investigative | 1.37 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| INFP | 66.8 |
| ENFP | 63.7 |
| INFJ | 61.8 |
| ENFJ | 58.2 |
| ISFP | 58.1 |

Best-fitting types: INFP, ENFP, INFJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Hairstylist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/hairstylist) — median $35,790
- [Skincare Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/skincare-specialist) — median $45,330
- [Costume Attendant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/costume-attendant) — median $50,400
- [Manicurist and Pedicurist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/manicurist-and-pedicurist) — median $35,760
- [Painting, Coating, and Decorating Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/painting-coating-and-decorating-worker) — median $41,600
- [Fine Artist, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrators](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fine-artist) — median $55,490
- [Shampooer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/shampooer) — median $32,600
- [Barber](https://nuecareer.com/careers/barber) — median $38,210
- [Craft Artist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/craft-artist) — median $46,080
- [Fashion Designer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fashion-designer) — median $80,960

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

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