She trained at Rose Bruford College.Barbara Rose Kellermann was born in Manchester, Lancashire.
Her Jewish father, Dr.
Walter Kellermann (1915–2012), had fled Nazi Germany and settled in Leeds, where he became a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Physics at the University of Leeds.
Her mother, Marcelle, was a member of the French Resistance during the Second World War who became a teacher of modern foreign languages.Kellerman has a younger brother Clive and a younger sister Judith.