The barber on the film is an uknown Greek immigrant. That means that he is the first Greek "actor" in cinema history.
Among the first group of motion pictures to be exhibited commercially in the world, when the Holland Bros.' Kinetoscope Parlor opened on Broadway in New York City on 14 April 1894.
Similar to 1894's Blacksmith Scene, The Barbershop is a Kinetoscope film filmed entirely within Edison's Black Maria studio.
This film is posted online to the Library of Congress' National Screening Room.