Grace Eleanor Keeling (born 12 August 1999), known professionally as GK Barry, is an English internet personality, social media influencer and presenter. Keeling began posting on video-sharing platform TikTok in 2020 whilst completing a film studies degree at Nottingham Trent University, during which she worked on the BBCsoap operaDoctors. After one year of posting lifestyle videos on the app, she surpassed 1 million followers. She began presenting a podcast, Saving Grace, in April 2022, which sees her interviewing various celebrities. She has since gone on to tour the Saving Grace podcast around the UK.
Life and career
Grace Eleanor Keeling was born on 12 August 1999 in Cambridge.[2][3] At the age of two, she moved to the British Virgin Islands until she moved back to England at eight years old. She later moved to Nottingham and studied film at Nottingham Trent University (NTU), obtaining a master's in digital marketing. Whilst at NTU, she worked on the set of the BBC soap opera Doctors, created videos for ShawMind and Nottinghamshire Police, helped the Nottingham Women's Centre rebrand their business and assisted on the set of the Netflix film Hood.[4]
Keeling rose to fame on TikTok in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.[5] She chose the username @gkbarry due to initially not wanting her real name to become public and has explained that the username comes from her initials, GK, and the surname of her friend, Tatiana Barry.[6] She admitted that in her final year of university, she prioritised TikTok over her work and felt that she could have achieved a better grade.[7]
In late 2021, she appeared on the Fellaspodcast, which led to Keeling starting her own podcast under The Fellas Studios, Saving Grace, in April 2022,[6][8] which is also uploaded as a vodcast to YouTube.[9] In November 2022, Keeling participated in Footasylum's "Locked In" online reality series in which she finished as the 2nd runner-up.[10] In February 2023, Keeling toured the UK as part of her Saving Grace podcast.[11] Later that month, she also appeared in an episode of Love Island: Aftersun to discuss the ninth series with presenter Maya Jama.[3] She also fronted an advertisement campaign for KFC in July 2023.[12] Keeling has also appeared on the ITV2 game show CelebAbility in July 2023, as well as starring in episodes of The Wheel and The Weakest Link on BBC One.[3] In September 2023, Keeling was announced as one of the celebrities participating in Don't Look Down for Stand Up to Cancer, which aired on Channel 4 in October 2023.[13]
