Barnett was the eldest daughter of six children. When she was 10, her mother died. Her father worked for an
advertising agency, and commuted 70 miles to London every day. An art history graduate of the
University of Warwick, Barnett worked for the
BBC in London for 12 years.
Carlos, a biopic of
Carlos the Jackal by French director
Olivier Assayas, was the first scripted original of Barnett's tenure; the rights were also desired by
IFC, a channel under the same ownership, and a compromise was reached by CEO
Josh Sapan for it to debut as a miniseries on Barnett's
Sundance TV before being shown in full on IFC. As president and general manager at Sundance TV, Barnett developed programmes such as
Rectify,
Top of the Lake and
The Honourable Woman. While
Rectify, about a man released from death row, did not attract large audiences, it was critically acclaimed; AMC Networks CEO Ed Carroll credited its success to Barnett's work with writer-director
Ray McKinnon. At BBC America, she developed
Killing Eve, which was a commercial and critical success. Barnett had analysed
audience research on BBC America's popular broadcasts of
Doctor Who and found that its success was not due to being
science fiction but for its story, characters and societal themes, which were also found in
Killing Eve. She announced in July 2020 that she was leaving this role as entertainment president. ==References==