Adilah Barnes, an award-winning actor, has over 30 years of acting experience. Although best-known to television audiences for her role as "Anne Marie" on ABC’s Roseanne for five seasons, she began her stage career as a teen in Project Upward Bound program at California State University, Chico. Other notable stage credits in-clude Martha Pen1ecos1 in August Wilson’s award-winning play Joe Turner’s Come and Gone at both the Los Angeles Theatre Center and the American Conservatory Theatre (A.C.T.) in San Francisco where Ms. Barnes was a company member in other productions such as A Christmas Carol and Anna DeVeare Smith’s Piano. She received a DramaLogue Award for Outstanding Performance in the San Francisco Julian Theatre’s Jo Anne! and Bay Area Critics’ Circle Award nominations for both Jo Anne.' and Daddy in San Francisco. Her recent film credits include roles in Universal’s award-winning Erin Brockovich with Julia Roberts; and the upcoming Sandra Bullock film, Fool Proof. Her many guest-starring television credits include roles this season on CBS’ Family Law and The Agency, WB’s The Gilmore Girls, and UPN’s Roswell.

Ms. Barnes has toured extensively with her one-woman historical show I AM THAT I AM: Woman, Black. Now in its tenth season, the show has toured nationally in almost 30 states, coast to coast. The show has also been on the touring rosters of the California Arts Council, Nevada Arts Council, and Utah Arts Council. Ms. Barnes also toured extensively with the African American Drama Company of San Francisco, and Women on a Mission.

Ms. Barnes earned her B.A. in Theatre Arts at the University of California at Santa Cruz where she was elected in 1998 and still serves on the prestigious UCSC Alumni Council. She taught three years at American Conservatory Theatre in several acting programs, including the competitive Advanced Training Program. She has also taught at other institutions including the Los Angeles Theatre Center, Maria Gibbs’ Crossroads and the San Francisco School of Dramatic Arts.

Co-founder of the Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival, Ms. Barnes currently serves as Executive Producer and President of the Board of Directors. She also teaches privately at the Actor’s Workout Studio in Hollywood and writes. Her current writing project is another one-woman show on the life of her mother, Just Call Her A Woman of the Soil. She is also presently writing her first book, On My Own Terms: One Woman’s Journey.

Available as a lecturer, Ms. Barnes' previous lecture venues have included Lynchberg College(VA), South Dakota State University, and Modesto Community College (CA). Keynote addresses have been given at such schools as the University of California at both Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara, and Butte College’s Booker T. Washington African American Student Conference.