Barbara Barnes is a London-based actress who has built a career spanning television, theatre, and extensive voice work, including English dubs for anime productions. Born in North America, she is known for her versatile vocal abilities and proficiency in a range of American and Canadian accents.

Her voice acting career is broad, encompassing narrations for documentaries, video games, audio books, and animations. In the realm of English-dubbed anime, she contributed her voice to several high-profile original video animations (OVAs) that were distributed in the West during the late 1980s and early 1990s. She voiced the character Aila in the 1988 OVA Violence Jack 2, where she was credited under the pseudonym Jane Howard. In the 1989 series Angel Cop, Barnes provided the English voices for two distinct characters: the explosives expert Reika "Peace" Yogawa and the young pyrokinetic Hunter, Freya. This work in anime dubbing is part of a larger body of voice work that includes providing American-sounding voices for British children's cartoons, such as the character Lori in Chuggington.

Beyond voice work, Barnes has an extensive on-screen and radio career. She has guest-starred in television series such as Poirot, Miss Marple, and Rebus, and appeared in the film Formula 51. Since 1989, she has been a regular performer on BBC radio, taking on leading roles in dramatizations of classic stories like Anne of Green Gables and The Wizard of Oz, as well as readings for programs like A Book at Bedtime.