Keara Barnes

Keara Barnes | Co-Director Keara Barnes is a multi award-winning actor/writer/producer and emerging director from Vancouver, B.C. She holds a BFA in Theatre from the University of Victoria and studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York. Over the past ten years as a professional performer, she has amassed 50+ performing credits in both film and theatre, and has lent her voice to over a dozen voiceover projects. Keara is the Artistic Director of Standing Room Only Theatre, through which she has created and performed two one-woman shows, Almost a Stepmom & TravelTheatrics, which have both toured across Western Canada for four years to critical acclaim, sold-out runs, and media coverage by Global TV, CBC and The Vancouver Sun. Since 2015, the company has produced six theatrical productions including the sold-out run of The Weir in the 2015 Celticfest Vancouver. As a filmmaker, Keara is the writer/producer of multiple films, most notably, 'A Midwinter Nightmare,' which is a nine-time film festival award-winner including "Best Romantic Comedy" at the 2021 Oregon Short Film Festival and for which Keara is a three-time "Best Actress" winner. Keara's latest film is 'The Stepmom,' which she wrote, co-directed, executive produced and acted in. The film was adapted for the screen from her one-woman theatrical show and is currently touring the 2022 film festival circuit, and for which Keara recently won "Best Script writer" at the 2022 Montreal Independent Film Festival and the International Independent Film Festival Awards, as well as "Best Drama Short" at the The Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards. In the spring of 2022, she reunited with her Stepmom dream team to co-direct and produce the short drama 'Harbour' and was also a producer on the Crazy 8s short film 'Consumer.' Both films are currently touring the film festival circuit. Keara is the also Director of Sponsorship at the Vancouver Horror Show Film Festival, an avid traveler (having been to 38 countries), and a published freelance writer.