John Simm

Biography: John Simm was born in Leeds, Yorkshire and grew up in the town of Nelson, near Burnley. His father was a local musician, who taught John to play guitar and they played together in working men's clubs before John was ten, calling themselves Us2. At the age of 16 he went to Blackpool drama college before going to the Drama Centre in London at the age of 18 and studying the Stanislavski school of Method acting. Finding himself amongst Oxford Graduates, when he was a comprehensive-educated teenager, John educated himself by reading classic plays and novels. During the 90's John's band Magic Alex, in which he still plays, supported Echo and The Bunnymen on two tours. He hung out with music people and was a regular at nightclubs becoming a hero for the lad-mag generation. In 1997 John starred in the first series of The Lakes. The second series followed in 1999 and the film Human Traffic was released. John's favourite book is Crime and Punishment and he is 'eternally grateful' that he was given the opportunity to play Raskolnikov in the BBC adaptation of the novel in 2001. John's most famous role to date is as Sam Tyler in Life on Mars, and in 2007 recreated iconic role of The Master in long-running and revitalised UK Science Fiction show, Doctor Who. John is married to actress Kate McGowan and they have a son, Ryan, who was born in 2001, and a daughter Molly, born in 2007.… Expand