Born in Middletown, Connecticut, to two musicians and teaching parents, he spent two years as a child in Tanzania, where he attended the International School Moshi.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 1996, after which he worked as a designer engineer for Symbol Technologies on Long Island before moving to Los Angeles to pursue his filmmaking career.

[1] Barlow wrote the Meghan Markle-starrer Random Encounters, a romantic-comedy directed by Boris Undorf and initially distributed by Gravitas Ventures.

[9] Early in his career, Barlow directed the interview-based documentary short Film Trix 2002 and produced the narrative feature film Hollywood, Pennsylvania, which had a live making-of documentary broadcast from the set onto the World Wide Web.

[10] Barlow's acting work includes L.A. Twister, the lowest-budgeted film ever to premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre,[11] and Chance, the directorial debut of Amber Benson, as well as commercials.