Gemma Barnett

Gemma Barnett is an award-winning poet, actor and writer. Her piece ‘The Front Desk’ won the ‘Poetry for Good’ prize and was featured on BBC Woman’s Hour. The Front Desk was dedicated to the women she was working with at the time in a GP surgery in Tottenham.
She was a winning finalist of BBC Words First in 2021 with ‘i killed them when they came for my kid’. In 2022 she was long-listed for the Evening Standard Short Story Competition. Her poem ‘My Abortion was Funny’ was selected/published in the Verve Poetry Festival Anthology on Protest 2023 and commended for the Outspoken Poetry Prize 2023. Gemma’s debut short film ‘Bridge’ is currently in post production. ‘Bridge’ began as a performance poem commissioned by Theatre Deli for ‘Pandemic in a City’ before it went on to be commissioned by the BBC to adapt into a short film.
She is currently working on her second film commission. Gemma has performed in venues across the U.K both as an actor and writer and loves stories that explore big political ideas through a small lens. She often tries to be funny because there’s a lot to feel miserable about.