Genevieve Barr is a deaf actress. She played the lead role in the BBC award-winning series The Silence. Having grown up speaking orally, Genevieve learnt sign language for this role. Genevieve will next be seen alongside Sarah Lancashire in Jack Thorne's four parter The Accident for Channel 4. This is the last in a trilogy that includes National Treasure and Kiri. Further credits include roles playing psychopathic Lisa in Shameless, BAFTA award-winning The Fades, ITV's True Love alongside Jane Horrocks, Call the Midwife, ITV's Liar, BBC's four parter Press and most recently, Netflix film 'Been So Long'.
Personal Life
Genevieve was born deaf into a hearing family with no hereditary record of deafness, and has three younger siblings. She was fitted with hearing aids aged four and attended mainstream education at Harrogate Ladies' College, studied English and History at Edinburgh University, before graduating in 2008. A talented sports-woman, she played rounders for England at 15, was a high-board diver competing in national competitions, captained the Edinburgh University lacrosse team, before going on to play for Scotland. Upon completion of her degree, Genevieve enrolled in the Teach First graduate scheme and was teaching in a secondary school in Bermondsey before commencing her acting career. Genevieve was married in 2016, and had her first child in 2018.
Career
In 2011, after The Silencecame out, Genevieve went on to roles in Shameless and BBC3's award-winning drama The Fades. That was the first time Genevieve and Jack Thorne worked together before they were reunited with Thorne's hit play The Solid Life of Sugar Water. In 2013, Genevieve starred alongside Jane Horrocks in an episode of ITV's True Love,, directed by Dominic Savage and played a Victorian prostitute in the BBC production Murder on the Victorian Railway. In 2014, Genevieve played June Dillon in the season 4 finale of BBC's Call the Midwife - a deaf woman who relied solely on sign language coming to terms with childbirth and the prospects of raising a deaf child. In 2016 after a long stint of theatre work, Genevieve returned to television with ITV's hit show LIAR which has now been commissioned for a second season. In this, Genevieve was reunited with Harry and Jack Williams of Two Brothers Pictures. In 2017, Genevieve played the role of Features Editor, Charlotte, in BBC's Press. 2018 saw the release of 'Been So Long' in cinemas and on Netflix. Genevieve played Artemis in the film which starred Michaela Coel and Arinze Kene and was directed by BAFTA winning director, Tinge Khrishnan. Genevieve can also be seen in the Maltesers advert, part of a huge international campaign celebrating diversity. This was the first advert to ever be aired solely in British Sign Language with captions. Her theatre work started in 2013. Genevieve played the role of Sarah on an international tour of Brian Friel's Translations, led by actor Adrian Dunbar. In 2015, she was reunited with Jack Thorne on the theatre production, 'The Solid Life of Sugar Water'. Co-produced by Graeae, the disability-led theatre company and Theatre Plymouth Royal, it won five star reviews and awards at the Edinburgh Festival in 2015 and went onto the National Theatre in London at the culmination of a successful tour. Shortly after, she worked with Matt Smith at the Royal Court's production of Unreachable, written and directed by Anthony Neilson.
