Samantha Barks

Samantha Barks (born 02 October 1990) is a professional actress and singer from the Isle of Man. Sam has been dancing since the age of 3, training in Ballet, Modern and Tap. She was also a member of the Manx Operatic Society, which provided her with a lot of performing experience Her previous work (all in the Isle of Man) includes playing Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, The Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland, The Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, Dancing in Coppelia, La Boutique Fantasque, La Sylphide, The Nutcracker, Dick Whittington, Cinderella, Robinson Crusoe, Rizzo in Grease, a Hot Box Girl in Guys and Dolls, Cyndi Gibson in Back to the 80s and she understudied Lucy in Jekyll and Hyde. Sam represented the Isle of Man in the Maltese International Song Competition in 2007, where she won the main prize of €2000 and the title of Best Foreign Singer. She performed at the 2007 Peel Bay Festival, Isle of Man, supporting the Sugababes and Matt Willis, which also saw appearances by Robin Gibb and Madness. Sam had a singing role in the ITV1 TV movie, The Final Quest, directed by and starring David Jason. She moved to London at the tender age of 16 to pursue her dream as a performer, which would not have been possible without the amazing support of the late Mr Patrick Taylor, who dedicated his time and money to Sam, helping her make her dream reality. She started her training at Arts Educational School where she began to study Performing Arts A-Level Sam came into the public eye when she appeared on the BBC1 show 'I'd Do Anything', searching for an unknown talent to play Nancy in the new West End production of Oliver, where she eventually came 3rd, in 2008. During the competition she got to work with some amazing people including Idina Menzel and Liza Minelli, which has already helped her a lot in her career. The competition provided her with a fantastic opportunity to get a huge head start in the world of performing. She had to drop out of Arts Ed once she got too far in the competition. She then landed the lead role of Sally Bowles in the UK touring production of 'Cabaret' from 29th Aug 2008 until 11th July 2009, playing in 36 theatres all across the UK and in the Isle of Man. She did over 315 shows without missing a single one. Sam was then invited out to China to launch the new Manx Ship, the Caly Manx, in Shanghai on 30th September 09. She then went on to star as Aladdin in panto in Windsor from 9th Dec 2009 until 10th Jan 2010 doing 13 shows a week. She starred in a Disney TV Series called 'Groove High' where she played the lead role, Zoe. Sam made her West End debut playing Eponine in Les Miserables at the Queen's Theatre in London. She debuted on the 21st June 2010. Sam had been chosen by Cameron Mackintosh to play Eponine in the 25th Anniversary Concert at the 02 Arena on 3rd October 2010. Cameron gave Sam the news that she had been chosen after watching her as Eponine on her opening night in the West End at the Queen's Theatre. Sam went on to do the UK Tour of Oliver! from 10 December 2011 to 1 April 2012. She left temporarily to film for the 2012 movie of Les Miserables which was announced during a curtain call of Oliver!. She returned to the production days after filming for two weeks. After returning again after other opportunities she officially finished on the 20th of February 2013. She performed at the 85th academy awards with the cast of Les miserables (2012) on the 24th of February 2013. Shortly after she filmed a film called the Christmas candle. She played Velma Kelly at the Hollywood bowl production of Chicago in 2013 alongside Ashlee Simpson. In 2014 she starred in a movie called bitter harvest that was filmed in 2013. She also had a role a movie called Dracula untold but her scenes were ultimately cut from the film. She starred as Avril/Mallory in the City Of Angels revival at the Donmar Warehouse from the 5th of December 2014 to the 7th of February 2015. She originated the role of Amélie in Amélie at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in California which opened on the 29th of August 2015 and had an extended run until the 18th of October 2015. In 2016 she starred alongside Jonathan Bailey in the Last Five Years at the St.James Theatre as Cathy that ran from October 28th 2016 to December 3rd 2016. On the 12th of March 2017 she performed in a one off concert of Honeymoon in Vegas. She also starred in the movie interlude in Prague which was released on the 11th of May 2017 in the UK. She had her first UK solo tour upon release of her self titled album, she played at 13 venues to promote the album and made her American concert debut at Feinstein's/54 Below in New York City during July 2017. She played Vivian in Pretty Woman the musical in Chicago during March 2018 and played the role on Broadway at the Nederlander Theatre in New York from July 20th 2018 to the 21st of July 2019. This marked her Broadway debut, On the 5 December 2019 it was announced that she would play Elsa in the original West End cast of Frozen the musical, previews started August 27th 2021. Sam is currently still in the production. During February 2020 she played Florence in Chess at the Umeda Arts Theater in Japan starring alongside Ramon Karimloo. During 2021 she starred as Casey in a virtual production of First Date the musical. On February 1st 2021 she announced that she was engaged to Pretty Woman co-star Alex Stoll and they got married on the 18th of June 2022. For three performances she played Florence in Chess at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane from the 1st of August 2022 to the 2nd of August 2022. In October 2022 Tomorrow Morning the movie was released on DVD which had a previous limited cinema release where she starred as Catherine. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.