Ben Barnes was born in London, England, on Thursday 20th August 1981 

Studies: 
Ben was an alumnus of Homefield Preparatory School,  King’s College School and he graduated from Kingston University in 2004, (BA- Hons) where he studied drama and English, specializing in Children’s literature. At the University, Ben is mentioned  as “one of their most talented students,  fine actor and  intellectually outstanding, the first student to be awarded first class honors in drama (with English)”.
There also a page dedicated to Ben on Kingston University Website, here .

Career:
Ben Barnes began his career when he was a teenager, in musical theatre. At the first for a  few years as part of the National Youth Music Theatre, where in 1997, 15 years old, Ben played drums in the West End musical “Bugsy Malone”, the adaptation of the same movie. While his work at Theatre become intense with such  Plays  as The Ragged child, The Dreaming, Loving Ophelia, Sex Chip and Rock ‘N’Roll, Ben was a singer in the boy band Hyrise, which represents U.K. in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004, with the song “Leading me on”.

Even if Ben is a great singer with a wonderful voice, and he loves music (he is also a good pianist and drummer) he realized that the boy band wasn’t his way. So, he went on over and dedicated all himself in acting, his great passion. In 2006 he worked in  U.K. television, in the TV movie “Split Decision” and with a guest appearance on the series Doctors. In the same year he played the role of Dakin in the West End production “The History Boys”.

Ben made is movie debut in 2007, played the role of Young Dustan, during the first 10 minutes of the film “Stardust”. Then he starred as the Russian Cobakka in the film “Bigga than Ben”.

In February 2007, after one year spent searching an actor  for the main role of the adaptation of the second episode of “Narnia”,  was announced that Ben Barnes would play the role of Caspian, in “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian”. For this performance Ben has been nominated at the National Movie Awards 2008.

In honor of the film, a rose cultivated, (variety of the named rose “Wekfrancoly”)  was launched by Ben Barnes with the name of Rose “Prince Caspian”, on Wednesday 11th  June  2008 at BBC Gardener’s World Live in association with The Royal Horticultural Society at NEC Birmingham.  ‘Prince Caspian Rose’ was introduced by the Golden Fields Nursery, C & K Jones, in Barrow Lane, of Tarvin, Cheshire and bred by Californian rose breeder Tom Carruth. From the sale of each rose plant, a donation (20% of each sale) will go directly to Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity (Registered Charity no. 235825) as part of Disney’s partnership with the charity, to help raise £10 million towards the hospital’s redevelopment appeal.

This is not the only charity and Humanitarian involvement for Ben, because in 2009, he became a Patron of Make-A-Wish UK Foundation. To this end Ben said:  "It is always a joy to meet one of the very deserving Make-A-Wish children. I first became aware of this wonderful charity on the set of Prince Caspian and I immediately wanted to become more involved in helping the foundation to grant its truly magical and life-affirming wishes.”

In 2008 Ben starred as John Whitakker, in the romantic comedy “Easy Virtue”, with Jessica Biel, Colin Firth and Kristin Scott Thomas. Ben also sings three songs in the Movie Soundtrack. Then he played the role od Dorian Gray, again beside his friend, the actor Colin Firth, in the adaptation of the Oscar Wilde’s book, directed by Oliver Parker.

In 2009, after filmed in Boston the psychological thriller “Locked in” starred as a troubled father, Ben Barnes returned to Narnia as King Caspian, in “The Chronicles of Narnia: the Voyage of the Dawn Treader”. The movie, directed by Michael Apted, was filmed in Brisbane, Australia, from Summer and Autumn 2009 and released in December 2010.

In January 2010, Ben went to Ireland filming "Killing Bono", in the role of  a young Neil McCormick (the English music critic). This is a rock and roll  comedy based on the McCormick's  autobiography, “Killing Bono: I Was Bono’s Doppelgänger”,  in which Neil tells his friendship and rivalry with Paul David Hewson, alias Bono Vox, the lead singer of U2. In this film, Ben sings a lot of songs. 

Ben returned on stage, in September 2010, playing the role of the World War l soldier Stephen Wraysford in "Birdsong", a drama based on the Sebastian Faulks novel. Birdsong, directed by Trevor Nunn and adapted for the stage by Rachel Wagstaff, was played at Comedy Theatre in London from September 18, 2010, to January 15th 2011.

Killing Bono has been released on April 1 in UK  and this date was introduced by a premiere in Dublin and another one in London, both attended by the Cast and the real McCormick brothers, Neil and Ivan.  The Original Soundtrack, with several songs written by the Grammy Nominated songwriter Joe Echo (Ciaran Gribbin), has been launched on March 28th 2011,the same day of the London premiere,  and the main song, “Where We Want To be”, is accompanied by an official video performed by Ben and the co-star Robert Sheehan. During the film end credits, you can hear Ben Barnes singing his version (with his modified lyrics) of Barbara J. Hunt's song "Love Never Dies". 

In the meantime, Ben was taken in the promotion for the launch of “The Voyage Of the Dawn Treader” Dvd and Blue-Ray, and also received the NMA nominee in the category “Performance of the Year” for his role of  “King Caspian”.

Waiting for the beginning of his next work, Ben’s career takes an outstanding jump: WME, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, one of the most important international talent agency, on May 2011 has signed Ben (as well as he continues to be repped by the CAM agency in U.K.) and this is a further validation of his great talent.