The 2023 actors’ strike was a 118-day work stoppage by SAG-AFTRA that shut down most film and television production in the United States from July 14 to November 9, 2023, over streaming pay, artificial intelligence, and wages. It was the longest actors’ strike in the union’s history and the first joint walkout with the Writers Guild of America since 1960. It ended with a contract the union valued at more than $1 billion in new compensation and benefits, and it produced the first major labor agreement anywhere to set rules for how studios can create and use digital replicas of performers.
Why Actors Walked Out
SAG-AFTRA represents roughly 160,000 film and television performers. It went into negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers in June 2023 as its TV and theatrical contracts neared expiration. Three grievances drove the dispute.
The first was streaming pay. Under the older television model, performers received residuals each time a show was rerun, sold on DVD, or licensed to cable. Streaming platforms, which own both production and distribution, treated original content as material that never enters a secondary market, so performers received their upfront pay and little else. Actor Kimiko Glenn publicly shared that she received $27.30 for nearly 60 recurring appearances on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black, and actor Kenrick Sampson said more than 50 residual checks for streaming work totaled less than a dollar combined.1ABC News. Actors Union and Hollywood Studios Squabble Over Who to Blame for Strike The union sought a system in which actors would receive 2% of the revenue generated by streaming shows and films they appeared in.2The Conversation. The Fight for 2%: How Residuals Became a Sticking Point for Striking Actors
The second was artificial intelligence. The union called AI an “existential threat” to creative professions, warning that studios could scan a performer’s face and voice on set, then use that digital replica indefinitely without further consent or payment. Then-president Fran Drescher said, “If we don’t stand tall right now, we are all going to be in trouble. We are all going to be in jeopardy of being replaced by machines.”3NBC News – Today. Hollywood Actors SAG Strike Explained
The third was baseline compensation. The union asked for an 11% general wage increase in the first year of a new contract. The AMPTP countered with 5%.1ABC News. Actors Union and Hollywood Studios Squabble Over Who to Blame for Strike
How the Strike Started and How Long It Lasted
The SAG-AFTRA National Board voted unanimously on May 17, 2023, to send a strike authorization to members. Nearly 65,000 members voted, with 97.91% in favor, well above the 75% threshold required to empower the board to call a strike.4SAG-AFTRA. SAG-AFTRA Strike Authorization Vote Negotiations began on June 7, both sides agreed to extend past the June 30 contract expiration, and on July 11 the union requested a federal mediator. The negotiating committee voted the next day to recommend a strike, and actors stopped work on July 14.5Forbes. SAG-AFTRA Talks Break Down
The AMPTP said its pre-strike offer was worth more than $1 billion over three years, which it called the largest package ever presented to the union. That offer included what the producers described as the highest percentage increase in minimums in 35 years, a 76% increase in high-budget streaming foreign residuals, and a consent-based framework for digital replicas.6AMPTP. Statement From the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers SAG-AFTRA said the AMPTP had rejected or declined to engage on several key proposals, including streaming revenue sharing.7The Hollywood Reporter. SAG-AFTRA Members Call AMPTP Proposals Insulting
The Writers Guild of America had already been on strike since May 2, 2023, over nearly identical issues. When SAG-AFTRA joined in July, virtually all scripted film and television production stopped. The WGA settled its 148-day strike in late September 2023, with a deal that established that AI cannot be credited as a writer, required disclosure of AI-generated content, and set new streaming residual formulas tied to viewership.8Variety. Hollywood Strikes Below-the-line IATSE crews stood in solidarity on picket lines even as the shutdown cost them work.9Los Angeles Times. Hollywood Strikes 2023
What Actors Could and Couldn’t Do During the Strike
Under the strike order, SAG-AFTRA members could not perform any on-camera or off-camera work — acting, stunts, motion capture, voice work, looping, narration, or background work — for companies affiliated with the AMPTP. They also could not promote or publicize projects covered by the struck contracts. That meant no red carpets, no premieres, no press interviews for studio films and shows. Members could not negotiate future agreements, including consent for digital replicas or merchandising, while the strike lasted.3NBC News – Today. Hollywood Actors SAG Strike Explained
Some work continued. News, talk shows, reality programming, and soap operas operated under separate contracts unaffected by the strike order. Union-approved commercials, audiobooks, and student films were permitted. Independent productions with no AMPTP ties could apply for interim agreements that bound them to the terms SAG-AFTRA had last proposed to the studios. By early August, more than 100 such agreements had been issued, covering projects by A24, Lionsgate, and Neon, and individual productions including Kevin Costner’s The Gray House, A24’s Death of a Unicorn, and the Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour concert film.10The Hollywood Reporter. Actors Strike Interim Agreements
What Was in the Deal
On November 8, 2023, the SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical Committee unanimously approved a tentative agreement with the AMPTP, and at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time on November 9 the strike ended after 118 days. The board approved the deal on November 10 with 86% of the vote.3NBC News – Today. Hollywood Actors SAG Strike Explained Members ratified it on December 5, 2023, by 78.33% to 21.67%, with 38.15% of eligible members casting ballots.11SAG-AFTRA. SAG-AFTRA Members Approve 2023 TV/Theatrical Contracts Tentative Agreement The union valued the agreement at more than $1 billion in new compensation and benefit funding.
Wage Increases
Minimum salaries went up 7% effective November 9, 2023, then 4% on July 1, 2024, and 3.5% on July 1, 2025, all compounded. Daily rates for certain performer categories got an immediate 11% bump, and stunt coordinators received larger increases of 10%, 6.5%, and 5% across the three years.12SAG-AFTRA. 2023 Theatrical Television Memorandum of Agreement
A New Streaming Bonus
The contract introduced a “success-based” streaming bonus rather than the flat percentage of revenue the union had originally sought. For high-budget subscription streaming productions, a bonus is triggered when a title reaches domestic viewership equivalent to 20% of the service’s domestic subscriber base within the first 90 days of an exhibition year. Seventy-five percent of that bonus goes directly to performers, and the remaining 25% goes into a new Streaming Payment Distribution Fund. Producers were also required to share confidential streaming data — total hours streamed domestically and internationally — with the union, a transparency provision the industry had long resisted.13SAG-AFTRA. 2023 TV/Theatrical Summary Agreement
Artificial Intelligence Rules
The AI provisions were the most novel part of the contract and set the first major labor rules on digital replicas in any industry. The deal established two categories and set rules for each.
Employment-based digital replicas are created with the performer’s participation, such as through on-set scanning. Producers must give at least 48 hours’ notice before scanning, obtain “clear and conspicuous” consent that is separately signed or initialed, and provide a reasonably specific description of the intended use. Consent is required for each subsequent use of the replica.14SAG-AFTRA. Artificial Intelligence Resources
Independently created digital replicas are made from existing material without the performer’s physical participation. These also require consent and negotiated compensation.14SAG-AFTRA. Artificial Intelligence Resources
For background actors, replicas require consent and payment for a full day’s work. If a background actor’s replica is used in a way that makes them appear to be a principal character, the performer must be upgraded to principal pay.15SAG-AFTRA. AI FAQs
Wholly synthetic performers, meaning AI-generated characters not based on any real person, were also covered. Producers must notify the union and bargain before using one, and if a synthetic character incorporates a real performer’s facial features, that performer’s consent is required.14SAG-AFTRA. Artificial Intelligence Resources The contract also let the union safeguard a deceased performer’s digital likeness.15SAG-AFTRA. AI FAQs
One important gap: the agreement did not ban companies from using performers’ covered work to train AI systems. The union reserved the right to argue that such training is prohibited under other laws.14SAG-AFTRA. Artificial Intelligence Resources
Other Terms
The contract added rules on self-tapes and auditions. Producers cannot require equipment beyond a phone camera at 720p resolution, cannot demand memorization, and cannot charge fees to access casting notices. Pension and health contribution caps were raised, and a new relocation allowance of $5,000 per month (up to $30,000 per season) was created for series regulars working away from home.12SAG-AFTRA. 2023 Theatrical Television Memorandum of Agreement
What Has Happened Since on AI
The 2023 contract created a framework, but the fight over AI kept going. In September 2024, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed two SAG-AFTRA-backed bills. AB 2602 makes contract clauses allowing digital replicas unenforceable unless they include a reasonably specific description of the intended use and the performer is represented by counsel or a union. AB 1836 gives estates control over a deceased person’s digital replica for up to 70 years after death, with unauthorized use carrying minimum damages of $10,000. In May 2025, the federal Take It Down Act, which SAG-AFTRA supported to address nonconsensual intimate deepfakes, was signed into law. In July 2025, the union successfully lobbied to remove a federal provision that would have prohibited states from regulating AI.16SAG-AFTRA. Artificial Intelligence
A separate SAG-AFTRA strike against video game companies began in July 2024, again with AI as the central dispute. It lasted 11 months, covering performers working on titles for Activision, Electronic Arts, Disney Character Voices, Insomniac Games, and WB Games, on franchises including Call of Duty and Marvel’s Spider-Man.17The Hollywood Reporter. SAG-AFTRA Video Game Strike Over, Deal Ratified Members ratified a deal on July 9, 2025, by a 95.04% margin. The contract included a 15.17% compounded wage increase, consent requirements for digital replicas, and a new provision letting performers suspend their AI consent during a work stoppage.18SAG-AFTRA. SAG-AFTRA Members Approve 2025 Video Game Agreement
In May 2025, the union filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board against Llama Productions, an Epic Games subsidiary that produces Fortnite. The union alleged the company used AI to recreate the late James Earl Jones’ voice for a Star Wars-themed Fortnite season without notifying the union or bargaining. The companies said Jones had previously authorized the use of his archival recordings and that his family had granted permission.19Variety. SAG-AFTRA Files ULP Over Fortnite AI Darth Vader The outcome has not been publicly resolved.
In September 2025, an AI-generated character named Tilly Norwood was unveiled at the Zurich Film Festival by an AI “talent studio” called Xicoia, appearing in a short film titled AI Commissioner. SAG-AFTRA said Tilly Norwood “is not an actor” but “a character generated by a computer program,” arguing that the underlying program had been trained on the work of professional performers without consent or compensation. Emily Blunt, Natasha Lyonne, and Melissa Barrera publicly criticized the technology, and Lyonne suggested that agencies engaging with it “should be boycotted by all guilds.”20The Guardian. Emily Blunt and SAG-AFTRA Condemn AI Actor Tilly Norwood
The 2026 Successor Contract
Fran Drescher did not seek reelection. Actor Sean Astin was elected SAG-AFTRA president in September 2025 with 79% of the vote, succeeding Drescher after her four-year tenure.21Variety. Sean Astin Elected President of SAG-AFTRA Astin had served on the union’s negotiating committee during the 2023 walkout.
Under Astin, SAG-AFTRA returned to the table with the AMPTP in February 2026 for the successor contract. This round concluded without a strike. The parties reached a deal in May, the National Board approved it on May 11, and members ratified it on June 4, 2026, by 91.42%.22SAG-AFTRA. SAG-AFTRA Members Approve 2026 TV/Theatrical Contracts Tentative Agreement
The four-year agreement runs from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2030, and includes more than $700 million in total improvements. Minimum wages rise 3% annually for a compounded 12.55% over the term. Streaming residual ceilings go up, and foreign residuals for top-tier services increase by 5.6%. A framework was set to merge the SAG Pension Plan and AFTRA Retirement Fund by January 2028, and paid parental leave benefits are set to become available in July 2029.23SAG-AFTRA. 2026 TV/Theatrical Contracts
On AI, the 2026 contract builds on the 2023 protections by further restricting synthetic performers. Producers may not use a synthetic performer unless it “brings significant additional value” compared to a human performance or digital replica, and they must notify the union and bargain in good faith before doing so. The union can arbitrate violations and seek damages exceeding what a human performer would have been paid.23SAG-AFTRA. 2026 TV/Theatrical Contracts The contract also establishes a “principle strongly favoring human performances.” Some members disagreed with the approach, arguing that the contract “normalizes the use of AI replicas and synthetic performers” by creating a process for their use rather than banning them outright.24Los Angeles Times. SAG-AFTRA Members Approve Deal With Major Studios