Barrie was born on 28 March 1960 in Hanover, Lower Saxony, West Germany, to a father who was serving in the British Army,[citation needed] and later attended Methodist College, a boarding school, in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Barrie provided the voice of Ronald Reagan in the pop song "Two Tribes" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood,[3] as well as various vocalizations for other tracks by FGTH and Art of Noise.

[3] He also appeared as an impressionist on the BBC's Carrott's Lib[3] between 1983 and 1984, and he starred in his own sketch show Pushing Up Daisies (re-titled Coming Next for the following series) from 1984 to 1985 alongside Hale and Pace and Carla Mendonça.

[7] He starred in the 2020 special Red Dwarf: The Promised Land, alongside the main cast of Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules and Robert Llewellyn.

[8] In addition to starring in the TV series, Barrie also narrated the first two Red Dwarf books, Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers (1992) and Better Than Life (1995), including using his vocal talents to recreate the voices of the other characters, as they sound in the show.

In 2006,[14] he appeared as a regular team captain in the BBC Two quiz show Petrolheads[16] and was the star of the British crime/comedy/drama film Back In Business, in which he played Tom Marks.

In 1995, he released a video called Chris Barrie's Motoring Wheel Nuts, a showcase for his personal car collection.