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Avrich was born in Montreal, Quebec to the son of Irving Avrich, a garment industry executive and Faye Avrich, a housewife. His childhood was emersed in the arts as his parents ensured he was exposed to theatre and film on a continual basis. After his father put him in a play at the age of seven, Avrich became obsessed with the entertainmnet industry and began reading Variety and following Hollywood and Broadway news. In high school, Avrich produced talent shows and started experimenting with short films. While attending Vanier College, he gravitated to the film program and produced many short films. Avrich moved to Toronto in 1980 where he studied film, art and theatre at both Ryerson Polytechnical Institute and University of Toronto. While in school, Avrich started Rent-A-Fan Club, a company that provided celebrity status by using his fellow acting students to create fan clubs for people as a novelty item. Upon graduating, Avrich made two short films that would get him noticed. The King of Yorkville (1985) was a satirical parody of the '80s dating scene that was picked up by local television stations in Canada and The Madness of Method (1995)with noted character actor M. Emmet Walsh that would win a Gold Medal at the Bilbao Film Festival.

Avrich created Melbar Entertainment Group in 1998 to produce documentary films. Along with producers Nat Brescia and Tori Hockin Laurence, Avrich has directed and produced many critically acclaimed documentaries and television specials. His focus is generally on the entertainment industry and large scale television specials including a music special, Bowfire (2008)for PBS, One x One Gala (2007) for CTV and Caesar and Cleopatra (2009) for Bravo and CTV. Avrich is now working on films on Winston Churchill, Harvey Weinstein and David Steinberg and "The Tempest" with Christopher Plummer. Previous films have chronicled famed defence attorney Eddie Greenspan and Rolling Stones promoter Michael Cohl with rare interviews with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

Avrich began his marketing career in 1985 at Borden Advertising where he worked on national campaigns for the Canadian original production of Les Misérables and Miss Saigon . In 1989, Avrich joined Echo Advertising where he later became partner and eventually CEO before the company was sold to a UK based marketing firm. While at Echo, Avrich was instrumental in developing award winning international campaigns for clients such as the Toronto International Film Festival, the Rolling Stones, American Express, Sprint and for Broadway productions such as Ragtime, Showboat, Fosse, Kiss of the Spiderwoman and national productions of The Phantom of the Opera, Cats and Les Misérables. Avrich left Echo in 2005 and started Endeavour, a boutique advertising agency. For over 25 years, Avrich has been recognized as one of the most creative and enduring marketing executives. In 2009, Avrich won the Ernst & Young Entreprenuer of The Year Award.

Barry Avrich married Melissa Manly in 1998 and they had a daughter in 2004.