John Simm was born on 10th July 1970 in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. When he was 5 to years old, his parents Ronald and Brenda moved to Nelson, Lancashire. For the first time John was bitten by the acting bug at Edge End School and got encouragment from his drama teacher, Brian Wellock. At the age of 16 he went to drama school in Blackpool ("three years of drinking and West Side Story"), but left it early for a part in "Rumpole of the Bailey". John spent further three years at the Drama Centre in London, perfecting his acting skills. Then followed a succession of similar TV parts before "Cracker", in which he played a vulnerable juvenile delinquent, and leading role in coming-of-age drama "Boston Kickout", which won him Best Actor Award at the Valencia Film Festival in Spain. Among his other works are successful TV series "The Lakes", TV films "Forgive and Forget" and "Never Never", but it was raver flick "Human traffic" that brought him world-wide fame.

Among most recent John's roles are enigmatic New Order frontmen from "24 Hour Party People" and conscience-stricken intellectual Raskolnikov from BBC adaptation of Dostoevksy's classic "Crime and Punishment". In last two years John appeared in numerous BBC projects - political thriller "State of Play", modern Chaucer adaptation "The Canterbury Tales" and most recently - series "Nero".

His choice of Bernard Sumner part in "24 Hour Party People" wasn't fortuity, since John's also musician. His band Magic Alex already released their debut album.

John's wife is acress Kate McGowan, their son Ryan was born 13th August 2001.

He made his debut singing Elvis's Wooden Heart with his father; they called themselves Us2

During one of London gigs New Order dedicated their song True Faith to John's son

John likes The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, The Blur, Beck, The Beastie Boys, Happy Mondays, The Stone Roses, The Charlatans

John appeared on TV commercials Cellnet (1996) & Rover Dealers (1996)

Football is a John's major passion after music, but he's gutted because he can't play anymore after crocking his knee doing his own stunts in Chiller. He couldn't even walk for a couple of months.

John sang the acoustic version of 'Blue Monday' in '24 Hour Party People' during the split screen scene.

 

Memorable quotes

on roles:

"I always seem to play evil bastards"

on appearance:

"Someone once said I had an innocent face but evil eyes"

on diaries:

"Erm, I did once for a while when I was at Blackpool College and It's absolutely hilarious. For some reason I called my diary Aggerton. Aggerton Sachs. I don't know what I was on. What a name! "Dear Aggerton.."