Above: Anna Grace Barlow’s last Birmingham role was in Red Mountain Theatre Company’s “Legally Blonde.” She’s at the top left. (Red Mountain Theatre/conributed)

If you watched the first episode of Fox’s “Scream Queens,” you’ll certainly remember Birmingham’s Anna Grace Barlow.

Let’s just say her character, Bethany, seen in a flashback to 1995, is a little obsessed with the girl group TLC, so much so that she leaves the side of a sorority sister who has just given birth in a bathtub to go downstairs and dance.

“I am not missing ‘Waterfalls’ for this,” Bethany tells Sophia. “’Waterfalls’ is my jam.”

A few minutes later, Sophia is dead, setting the wheels in motion for “Scream Queens,” which follows present-day sorority members dealing with revenge killings stemming from that fateful night in 1995. It’s from the pen of Ryan Murphy, who created “Nip/Tuck,” “Glee” and “American Horror Story,” and, along with Barlow, “Scream Queens” stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Lea Michele, Emma Roberts and Nick Jonas.

“We all got to work with Jamie Lee Curtis, which is insane,” says Barlow. “She’s such a genius and so funny and so nice.”

Though Barlow hasn’t worked with Michele, who portrays one of the present-day sorority pledges, the “Glee” star posted a tweet on premiere night with Barlow’s character on screen:

#ScreamQueens is on west coast! Who’s watching with me?!?! 💋🔪 pic.twitter.com/IBS20rNWiG

— Lea Michele (@msleamichele) September 23, 2015

“That was crazy,” Barlow says of the tweet. “I was with all of my friends at my house and saw that.”

It was just another pinch-herself moment for Barlow, who at 21 is already forging a career on the stage, TV and in the movies. This year, she has appeared as Daisy in the MTV series “Scream,” has filmed episodes of

“I’m scared of scary things,” says Anna Grace Barlow, one of the stars of Fox’s “Scream Queens.” “I don’t like thrillers or horror movies.” (contributed)

“Faking It” for MTV and “Best Friends Whenever” for the Disney Channel, and starred in “Summer Forever,” a feature film released earlier this month. She has also created a YouTube channel with her boyfriend and has been working with Tony Award-winning director-choreographer Casey Nicholaw (“Something Rotten!,” “The Drowsy Chaperone,” “The Book of Mormon”) on a new musical.

The acting bug bit early for the Mississippi native, who began honing her craft in earnest when her family moved to Birmingham a decade ago.

“We moved from Mississippi when I was 11, which is lucky, because I started doing the Red Mountain Theatre Company junior groups,” Barlow says. “I’ve talked to other people who’ve graduated from the program, and it’s almost like they’ve prepared you for the real world, so when you get out there you’re ready to be out there.”

RMTC Executive Director Keith Cromwell says it was clear early on that Barlow was something special.

“There is a light about Anna Grace,” he says. “She shines. As a young child in the Red Mountain Theatre programs you could see it. She just had that ‘it’ factor. She is also smart and observes, surveys the scenes, soaks up information and direction like a sponge and, then, she doesn’t step forward, she leaps. She’s fearless.”

While participating in RMTC’s summer camps and starring in shows such as “Legally Blonde,” Barlow met talent agent Lynne Marks, who teaches for RMTC, and signed with her. Barlow graduated from Mountain Brook High School in 2012 and studied musical theater for a year at Pace University in New York.

“That summer after my freshman year, Lynne said to come out to Los Angeles, get some headshots and just say hi, so I did,” says Barlow, whose parents, Mike and Polly Anna, and three sisters live in Mountain Brook. “A couple of days into my trip I absolutely fell in love with LA, and I decided to stay. I am so lucky, because my family is so supportive of what I’m doing.”

Barlow lived for a couple of months with fellow RMTC alumnus and Disney star Jordan Fisher (also a Marks client) and his family, got a job at a coffee shop and soon booked a role in the national tour of “Bring it On: The Musical.”

She has been working consistently since then, but “Summer Forever” and “Scream Queens” have taken her career to another level. “I’ve definitely had people stop me and call me by name now,” Barlow says.
The body count was high in the premiere of “Scream Queens,” which airs Tuesday nights, and Barlow herself doesn’t know if she survives the season.

“I haven’t been killed on screen, but I don’t know if she’s died since the flashbacks,” she says. “I’m in either four or five episodes this season. I really don’t even know the ones I’m definitely in. I’m just like everyone else watching. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”