Peter Sklar has some impressive-looking resumes on his resume.

As a talent scout/coach he has been credited with discovering, coaching or nurturing such stars as Sarah Jessica Parker, Mischa Barton, Zachery Ty Bryan, Reese Witherspoon, and a host of other performers in the Broadway/Hollywood firmament.

Along the way, the New York-based Sklar, 56, has developed some distinctive ideas about why and how a star gets launched.

So why Rick Schroder and Ricki Lake (also on Sklar’s list of stars), and not you or yours truly?

“Just like in real life, we’re drawn to certain people and others we’re not,” Sklar said during a recent telephone interview. “In show business I think it’s related to self-image and health.”

Sklar will be sharing some of his views and advice during a discussion titled “So You Want to be a Performer,” which will be hosted at 7 p.m. March 28 by Karon Shea Model Management & The Central Mass Dance Academy, 65 Water St., Worcester. (The discussion is free, but registration is required.)

Sklar said he gives about 100 such talks a year at various acting/dancing/modeling studios across the country. “Any place they let me,” he joked.

Could he be about to discover another Reese Witherspoon in Worcester?

“If they come — that’s how the others did it,” he replied, perhaps only half-jokingly.

What’s definitely serious is the long-standing interest Sklar has had in the connection between child development and getting into movies and Broadway.

“There is a direct connection to the people casting the larger projects,” Sklar said. “What it comes down to is they want to see who these kids really are. Kids can’t do that unless they feel really good about themselves. People don’t talk about that. I try to explain to them how to get jobs.”

Sklar’s father was a school principal and his mother was a musician, which might suggest a connection between his work in the education and performing fields. He played the piano, often accompanying singers, and studied at the Juilliard School of Music. He also holds a master’s degree in education from Harvard University.

“I became interested in the personal lives of people doing well. I started to write about it. I started workshops,” Sklar said.

Self-confidence and a healthy approach to all aspects of life can be just as important as natural talent in determining whether a person is going to make it in the often very tough performing world, Sklar believes.

“Any boss will tell you, ‘If I have to choose between attitude and skill, I’ll take attitude and teach you the skill.’ I think self-image and confidence is a form of talent.”

Sklar has been one of America’s leading professional independent talent scouts, responsible for the commercial, film, television, Broadway and modeling careers of thousands of children, teens and young adults. He is also nurturing some Broadway dreams of his own, having composed and written the lyrics for a musical, “The Kid Who Played The Palace.” The musical will be having staged readings and workshops this summer, Sklar said.

Speaking of workshops, in 1984 Sklar established what would become “beginnings workshop,” a nine-day professional resident workshop held two times each summer near Binghamton, N.Y. The nonprofit workshop for children, teenagers and young adults ages 6 to 24 combines the establishment of a “holistic environment” with instruction from leaders of the field in commercials, print, television, film and Broadway. The nine days include time at the leased facility near Binghamton, and also preparing a workshop production at an Off Broadway theater in New York City.

While Sklar said his talk March 28 is unrelated to the beginnings workshop, he said he will hold interviews for people attending it this summer after the discussion. He estimated that he interviews about 2,000 people a year for places, picks 600, and ends up with 300. One workshop alum is Witherspoon.

“I’m sure we gave her a bit of a push,” Sklar said of the actress who won an Oscar earlier this month for her performance in “Walk the Line.”

He recalled “a happy kid who smiled a lot.” However, during the workshop “we weren’t very encouraging of her vocals. We pushed her to do more acting.” Recently, after watching Witherspoon singing her heart out as June Carter Cash in “Walk the Line,” Sklar acknowledged, “I had to eat crow.”

Still, he said that “We got Zachery Bryan on ‘Home Improvement’ (TV show) almost immediately.”

As for Sarah Jessica Parker (“Sex and the City’), Sklar said “She was extraordinary. Bright as hell. Funny as hell.”

But has he come across any Mrs. Worthingtons, as from the Noel Coward song “Don’t Put Your Daughter on the Stage Mrs. Worthington”?

Of course he has met some pushy stage mothers during the course of his career. Sklar said he likes the quote, “I’m not pushing my child, but ever since she was 2 weeks old this (performing) has been her dream.”

Still, his observation is that “the kids not really motivated to do this do not last — fortunately for the kids and for us.”

And you don’t have be a future American Idol to get something out of Sklar’s recipe for success. For example, he talks about the importance of a good diet for good general self-image.

“I do stress green vegetables, less sugar and caffeine,” he said. People who have attended beginnings workshop “usually do better at school. They do not get into self-destructive behavior. They sit back, make plans and they’re aware.

“Not everyone is going to be a performer in 10 years. Kids evolve. Once you realize that you have to address the whole child.”

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For reservations to attend “So You Want to be a Performer” call (508) 755-0662. Children, teenagers and adults are invited, but no child under 6 will be admitted. Everyone under 18 must attend with a parent. Admission is free.