Actor's portrayal includes menial work in the house (10)
I believe the answer is:
parliament
'house' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'actor's portrayal includes menial work' is the wordplay.
'actor's portrayal' becomes 'part' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'includes' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'work' indicates an anagram.
'menial' anagrammed gives 'liamen'.
'part' enclosing 'liamen' is 'PARLIAMENT'.
'in the' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for parliament that I've seen before include "UK legislature" , "Legislative assembly" , "The law is laid down here" , "Legislative body" , "Houses" .)