Barbara Dare was born Stacy Mitnick on February 23, 1963 in Wichita Falls, Texas. Her father was a dentist in the Air Force and her mother was an alcoholic. Dare grew up in the Jewish faith in Wayne, New Jersey and attended Wayne Hills High School. She went on to earn a degree in Buying & Merchandising from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Barbara first got involved with the adult film industry in the mid-1980's because of her wild and uninhibited anything-goes lifestyle at the legendary New York City swinger's club Plato's Retreat. Dare became one of the first porn actresses to sign an exclusive contract with a production company after she signed a $100,000 contract deal with Essex Video. Barbara appeared in well over 100 explicit hardcore features.

Barbara won the AVN (Adult Video News) Best New Starlet Award in 1987. She won additional AVN awards for Best Actress in 1989 and Best All-Girl Sex Scene in 1990. Dare was inducted into both the AVN Hall of Fame and the XRCO (X-Rated Critics Organization) Hall of Fame. Among the men's magazines Barbara was featured in and/or graced the covers of are "Fox," "Swank," "Hustler," "High Society," and "Club International". Dare made a rare foray into more "legitimate" R-rated low-budget fare with a substantial role in Evil Toons (1992). After taking a hiatus from porn in the early 1990's, Barbara briefly worked for Essex Video in public relations. In addition to her numerous porn film credits, Dare also toured both the US and Canada as a professional stripper. A former crack and heroin addict, Barbara now works as a substance abuse counselor.