Sam Barnard (actor)

Biography

Sam Barnard began his acting training in 2007, when he auditioned for the "Staging Change" course, a program for actors with learning disabilities run by Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts and Mind the Gap Theatre Company. He got in and finished the course the following year. That same year, 2007, he appeared without a credit in a single episode of the BBC soap EastEnders. In 2008, he had a role in the film The Oxford Murders, which featured John Hurt and Elijah Wood, and later that year he appeared in the "Thorpe Park" episode of Channel 4's The Inbetweeners.

The next year, he both acted in and co-directed the short film Crime Report for ITV Fixers. He then took lead roles in the short films Bully for You in 2010, produced by Voice UK and the Ministry of Justice, and See My Ability in 2011, produced by Derbyshire County Council and the Crown Prosecution Service. In 2012, Barnard co-directed the music video for Rocky and the Natives' single "Oyster Girl" and also starred in ITV's feature-length drama The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: The Murder in Angel Lane, acting alongside Paddy Considine and Olivia Colman.

He appeared in the first, second, third, and fifth series of Channel 4's The Undateables, which aired in 2012, 2013, and 2014. He was a guest on Channel 5's LIVE with Kaye Adams and on ITV's This Morning, and he sat on the expert panel for The Undateables Masterclass at the 2013 Guardian International Television Festival in Edinburgh. In 2017, he played Andrew in the first episode of the third series of Grantchester and Darren Tailor in the BBC drama Casualty.

That same year, he became the first actor with Down's Syndrome to perform in a professional pantomime, taking the role of the Giant's Henchman in Jack and the Beanstalk at the RCC Theatre in Rye. Around Christmas 2020, he starred in the BBC podcast drama Missing You, acting alongside June Brown. In September 2025, he was cast as Gus in the upcoming Sands Films movie The Man with the Plan, which is about the Beveridge Report.