Kirk Barker (born 26 April 1983) is an English actor. Beginning his career in stage productions of

pantomime Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is performed throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and (to a lesser extent) in other English-speakin ...

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

, and musical theatre, he moved on to television work and finally to leading roles in feature films.

Life

Barker grew up in the

Calder Valley Calder is a Scottish name and may refer to: People *Calder (surname) *Calder baronets, two baronetcies created for people with the surname Calder *Alexander Calder (1898-1976), the American sculptor known for his mobiles, son of Alexander Stirling ...

, attending Stubbings Infant School and Riverside Junior School in

Hebden Bridge Hebden Bridge is a market town in the Upper Calder Valley in West Yorkshire, England. It is west of Halifax and 14 miles (21 km) north-east of Rochdale, at the confluence of the River Calder and the Hebden Water. The town is the largest ...

and then Calder High School, where he took an interest in acting. After leaving school, he was a

windsurfing Windsurfing is a wind propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the aerospace and surf culture of California. Windsurfing g ...

instructor in the summer months and worked in ski chalets in the winter. In his twenties he renewed an interest in acting and musical theatre, beginning to appear in professional stage productions. In 2008 he was Dandini in ''

Cinderella "Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsi ...

'', in 2009 he played Macduff in a

Julian Chenery Julian may refer to: People * Julian (emperor) (331–363), Roman emperor from 361 to 363 * Julian (Rome), referring to the Roman gens Julia, with imperial dynasty offshoots * Saint Julian (disambiguation), several Christian saints * Julian (g ...

touring production of ''

Macbeth ''Macbeth'' (, full title ''The Tragedie of Macbeth'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those w ...

'', and in 2010 was

Elrond Elrond Half-elven is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. Both of his parents, Eärendil and Elwing, were half-elven, having both Men and Elves as ancestors. He is the bearer of the elven-ring Vilya, the Ring ...

in a tour of ''

The Hobbit ''The Hobbit, or There and Back Again'' is a children's fantasy novel by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published in 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the ''N ...

'' directed by

Roy Marsden Roy Marsden (born Roy Anthony Mould; 25 June 1941) is an English actor who portrayed Adam Dalgliesh in the Anglia Television dramatisations (1983–1998) of P. D. James's detective novels, and Neil Burnside in the spy drama '' The Sandba ...

. In 2011 he sang in a travelling production of '' Footloose'' by

Karen Bruce Karen Bruce (born 25 March 1963) is a choreographer and director who has worked in theatre and television. Bruce's work includes direction and choreography of ''The Last Tango'', ''Dance 'til Dawn'', ''Midnight Tango'' and ''Love Me Tender''. S ...

. In 2012 he had his first screen roles, before spending the second half of the year touring North America in ''

Batman Live ''Batman Live'' is a touring stage show, including theatrical, circus and stage-magic elements, that focuses on the DC Comics superhero Batman. It debuted on July 19, 2011 at the Manchester Evening News Arena, with two and a half years in the maki ...

''. The next year, he secured a regular part in the HBO television series ''

The Girls' Guide to Depravity ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...

''. In 2015 he starred in the film ''

Arthur and Merlin ''Arthur and Merlin'' is a 2015 independent British feature film directed by Marco van Belle and written by Kat Wood and Marco van Belle. The film, which stars Kirk Barker, Stefan Butler, Nigel Cooke and David Sterne, is based on the original Cel ...

'' and later the same year starred opposite

Viva Bianca Viva Bianca (born Viva Skubiszewski; 17 November 1983, ; ) is an Australian actress best known for her role as Ilithyia on the Starz network series '' Spartacus: Blood and Sand'' and '' Spartacus: Vengeance''. Bianca graduated from the Western ...

in ''

A Prince for Christmas ''A Prince for Christmas'' is a 2015 American made-for-television Christmas romantic drama film produced and directed by Fred Olen Ray and starring Viva Bianca, Kirk Barker and Aaron O'Connell. The film was originally called ''Small Town Prince ...

''.A Prince for Christmas
at radiotimes.com, accessed 19 December 2017

Filmography

Notes

External links

*
Kirk Barker
at Mandy.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Barker, Kirk 1983 births Living people English male stage actors English film actors English male musical theatre actors People from Calderdale (district)