She has appeared in various soaps, including EastEnders and Brookside, as well as many other drama serials, such as Harry, The Bill and Band of Gold.
[3] She went to drama school at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art as a teenager for three years,[1] and later said that it put her off becoming an actress.
In 1996, Marten appeared at the National Theatre in Helen Edmundson's adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace.
[12][13] Barbara and her husband, Mike Kenny,[14] (writer of The Railway Children play) have three sons, Theo, Josh and Billy.
[15] In 2018, she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for her role in People, Places and Things at National Theatre/St.