Film Career · Hair and Makeup
Key Makeup Artist
Hair and Makeup · IATSE Local 706 (LA) / Local 798 (NY)
- Union
- IATSE Local 706
- Day rate
- ~$570/day
- Experience
- 4–9 yrs
What does a Key Makeup Artist do?
The key makeup artist designs and runs makeup for the production, from beauty and character work to tattoos and injuries. Special effects makeup, with prosthetics and appliances, is its own specialty that keys coordinate with when a design crosses into their territory.
What does a Key Makeup Artist make?
- Day rate about $570 at Local 706 scale (10 hours at about $57 an hour) up to $900-$1,200 with overtime and a kit fee, roughly $90K-$180K a year.
- Total pay swings on 12-hour days, kit rental, and recurring episodic or feature work.
Film work is gig based, so crew are paid a day or weekly rate rather than a salary. These are realistic 2024-2025 ranges grounded in union rate cards and industry data; actual pay swings with budget tier, market, overtime, and reputation.
Sources & how we estimate pay
Union scale is the floor; the ranges above also reflect market day rates above scale. They are grounded in the following 2024–2025 sources:
Union rate cards & wage schedules
Official guild scale — the floor each craft is paid from.
- IATSE — 2024 Basic Agreement wage scales (PDF) ↗
- IATSE Local 600 (International Cinematographers Guild) — camera rate cards ↗
- DGA — minimum salary rate cards (director, unit production manager, assistant directors) ↗
- WGA — schedule of minimums (writers) ↗
- SAG-AFTRA — theatrical & background rate sheets (cast, stunts, background) ↗
- Teamsters Local 399 — basic feature wage rates, 2024–27 (transportation, locations, wranglers) (PDF) ↗
On the job
- Design character makeup with the director and department partners
- Execute principal makeup and maintain it through shooting days
- Run the department: staffing, continuity, and health standards
- Coordinate with SFX makeup when designs need prosthetics
You’ll like and be good at this job if:
Hard skills
- You are a skilled makeup artist across looks and effects
- You can run a department and manage continuity
Soft skills
- You collaborate on character with an artist's eye
- You stay fast and calm under a schedule
Career progression
Artists rise from background and assistant chairs to personal artists for principals, then to department head. Editorial and beauty backgrounds feed the craft, but set continuity discipline is what the promotion actually rewards. SFX-capable keys widen their bookable range.
A typical path, from entry to the top of the craft. Times are rough and vary by market, luck, and how steadily the work comes.
- Assistant Makeup Artist· 1-3 yrs
~$75K–$220K/yr
- Makeup Artist· 3-6 yrs
~$75K–$150K/yr
- Key Makeup Artistyou are here· peak of the craft
~$90K–$180K/yr
How do you become a Key Makeup Artist?
Makeup artists in film generally do not need a state cosmetology license (California explicitly exempts theatrical makeup; Local 706 asks for a color-blindness test, not a license) — the real entry is set hours, and background makeup on large productions is the classic first step. Build a kit, keep it immaculate, and let working keys see your speed. Locals induct from the people already reliably on their trucks.
On covered productions, rates, hours, and conditions for the role are set by IATSE Local 706 (LA) / Local 798 (NY) contracts.
Covered by a union? The joining a film union guide explains how each one takes members.