Why do some acting credits show up in a separate list under a category called "Self" even if those people didn't actually appear as themselves?

Why the self section exists

To help IMDb users quickly and easily distinguish between credits relating to acting and non-acting roles, these two types are separated into different sections on a name page.  

This means that to create a more accurate and simplified self-credit space - individuals who:

• Appear in titles with the genre Documentary
• Appear in titles with the keyword TV-special (e.g. the Academy Awards ceremony broadcast)
• Appear in titles with the keyword non-fiction (e.g. Talk-Shows)
  
• Are credited as "himself, herself, self, themselves" (e.g. in Making-of featurettes or Reality TV)

are displayed in a separate section called "Self" and other roles will appear in their respective groupings.

Since the distinction is based on the type of title and not on the individual credit, a restricted number of appearances may show up in the wrong section. 

For example - most documentaries include appearances of famous people as themselves (e.g. being interviewed or in stock footage), but a few of them also feature reenactments with actors portraying historical characters. 

Again, these will end up in the "Self" listing (even though the credit will still list the proper character names). 

How to move credits out of the self section

You can prevent this by adding the "reenactment" keyword to a title via the Edit page button found at the bottom of the titles page on IMDb. Once approved, any credits for that title should move into the correct section. 

Tracking your contribution

You can now track the status of your keyword submission and if it has not been approved, we'll tell you the reason why.

To learn more - check out our article about it.