Barış Atay was born on September 22, 1981, in Germany. Shortly after his birth, he lived in Antakya with his family until 1999, after moving to Türkiye.

At the age of 18, in 1999, he went to Adana to attend university. He began studying Biology at Çukurova University. In his final year, he changed his mind, left, and went to Istanbul, where he passed the entrance exams for the Theatre Department at Yeditepe University, continuing his studies there. He graduated from the theatre department of this university in 2004. In 2011, he completed his master's degree in Cinema-TV at Kadir Has University.