After serving in the Canadian Armed Forces, he started his movie acting career in 1982 and appeared in nearly a dozen movies, including Les Boys in the first part of the series in 1997 (as Roger, a defenceman for a garage league team), Aurore, and The Rocket (Maurice Richard), a tribute to life of the former Montreal Canadiens superstar Maurice "Rocket" Richard.

He also appeared in several popular television series, including La Petite Vie in 1995, Scoop and Paparazzi.

His most important role in television and arguably in his entire acting career was in KM/H, a TVA TV series in which he played the main character for nearly eight years.

His first famous role was his stand-up character named Roland "Hi-Ha" Tremblay, which became a hit around 1988, and was the basis for Serge Gaboury's comic strip of the same name, and also started the career of comic/actor Vincent Bolduc, who became famous by playing the same routine at age 9 or 10.

[1] In 2022, Barrette played in Martin Villeneuve's The 12 Tasks of Imelda (Les 12 travaux d'Imelda), co-starring playwright Robert Lepage and actress-singer Ginette Reno, in which he plays Martin and Denis Villeneuve's uncle André.