Anastasia Barnes was born in Boston. Her folks split when she just a young kid. She and her sister grew up in Cincinnati with her Mother in the suburbs of Cincinnati; however most summers were spent with their Father in New England. At 15, her parents reunited, and the family moved to a town just south of Boston.
As a kid she watched old black and white movies from the 30s and 40s and popular sit coms from the late 70s and early 80s. She showed her interest in music and acting at a very early age, and would perform at the drop of a hat. Ask her family!
Anastasia grew up during the “golden age of hip hop”, listening to rappers such as Slick Rick, Doug E. Fresh, and Grandmaster Flash, and then later in high school, Run DMC, De La Soul, and A Tribe Called Quest. While taking voice lessons in high school, her Father thought she needed to expand her musical pallate so he turned her on to female jazz vocalists such as Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, and Ella Fitzgerald.
After graduating high school, Anastasia studied English and Theatre at UMass Amherst. She soon discovered that getting a degree was only the beginning.
She continued her acting training in NYC, studying Improvisation at UCB and various acting methods with well known teachers (Len Petit, Joanna Merlin, Wynn Handman). Loving all sides of the industry, Anastasia left NY to study filmmaking in Rockport, Maine at the Maine Media Workshops at Rockport College. She has written and coproduced three short films (two of which were shot in Buenos Aires).
She collaborates on song writing for film and tv with Dow Brain of B.U.M.P Publishing. Anastasia recently wrote and produced her own web series, The Ruby Besler Show,a parody on the 1940s instructional videos “with a twist” that would have been “banned in Boston” in those days.
She has has been on the faculty at C.P. Casting, since 2005, teaching creative dramatics and on camera technique. In 2008, Anastasia opened her own studio, ab Studio for Actors..
There’s no end to her talent, since for the past decade she also has worked with her family business, High-Profile Monthly (a New England based trade publication) doing sales and business development.
She currently resides in Los Angeles.
