Biography
Samantha Barks brings a rich, warm vocal tone to her work as a singer and actress across stage musicals, television, film, and her own adult contemporary pop output. She had already issued her first solo recording before wider recognition arrived through her appearance as a teenage contestant on the BBC’s 2008 season of I’d Do Anything. Her third-place finish opened doors to professional musical theater engagements in the U.K. and later to screen roles that included the Disney Channel series Groove High and the 2012 film adaptation of Les Misérables. Barks reached Broadway for the first time in 2018, headlining Pretty Woman: The Musical.
Raised on the Isle of Man, she trained in ballet and tap dancing as a child and later completed her A levels at the Arts Educational Schools London in Chiswick. While still in her teens she independently released the debut album Looking in Your Eyes in 2007. The next year she auditioned for I’d Do Anything and finished third. That exposure led to stage work such as Sally Bowles in the U.K. tour of Cabaret (2008–2009) and Éponine in a London production of Les Misérables (2010–2011). In 2012 she began portraying Zoe on Groove High and also reprised Éponine for director Tom Hooper’s screen version of Les Misérables. Additional stage appearances followed in Chicago, City of Angels, and a musical adaptation of Amélie; in June 2016 she issued her self-titled sophomore album and supported it with her first solo U.K. tour.
In 2017 she was cast as Vivian—originally played by Julia Roberts—in a stage musical of Pretty Woman whose score featured music and lyrics by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance. After its Chicago premiere, the production, titled Pretty Woman: The Musical, opened at the Nederlander Theatre in August 2018, marking Barks’s Broadway debut.
Raised on the Isle of Man, she trained in ballet and tap dancing as a child and later completed her A levels at the Arts Educational Schools London in Chiswick. While still in her teens she independently released the debut album Looking in Your Eyes in 2007. The next year she auditioned for I’d Do Anything and finished third. That exposure led to stage work such as Sally Bowles in the U.K. tour of Cabaret (2008–2009) and Éponine in a London production of Les Misérables (2010–2011). In 2012 she began portraying Zoe on Groove High and also reprised Éponine for director Tom Hooper’s screen version of Les Misérables. Additional stage appearances followed in Chicago, City of Angels, and a musical adaptation of Amélie; in June 2016 she issued her self-titled sophomore album and supported it with her first solo U.K. tour.
In 2017 she was cast as Vivian—originally played by Julia Roberts—in a stage musical of Pretty Woman whose score featured music and lyrics by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance. After its Chicago premiere, the production, titled Pretty Woman: The Musical, opened at the Nederlander Theatre in August 2018, marking Barks’s Broadway debut.
Albums
Singles
