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Barry John (born 1944) is a British-born, Indian theatre director and teacher. He was the Founder-Director of 'Theatre Action Group' (TAG) (1973), one of the early theatre groups based in Delhi.

In 1997, he launched Imago Media Company, and also started Imago Acting School in Delhi, both of which moved to Mumbai in March 2007. The school also got him recognition, as some of the alumni went on to become Bollywood actors, including Shahrukh Khan, Manoj Bajpai, Sushant Singh Rajput, Dulquer Salman Samir Soni and Shiney Ahuja, as well as Hollywood actors including Freida Pinto and one of the top 10 US media companies CEO Samir Arora. He has been based in India since 1969. After moving to Mumbai his acting school was opened in Mumbai as 'The Barry John Acting Studio', situated in Andheri.

He was awarded the 1993 Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Theatre Direction by Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy for Music, Dance and Theatre, and also the Sahitya Kala Parishad Award.

Early life and education :

Barry John was born in 1944, in the industrial city of Coventry, Warwickshire (now in the West Midlands), England. His father, an engineer by profession, joined the navy during the world War II and his mother was a home-maker, and his younger sister was Christine.

By the age of 12, he had started selling newspapers, and pursued theatre in the evenings. At 15, his father fixed up a job for him at the factory where he worked. After finishing his schooling, he moved to London, but unable to find place in acting schools, he joined Leeds University at Leeds, West Yorkshire. There he trained to become a theatre teacher, for three years under John Hutchson, the head of department.