[3][4] When Simpson was at primary school, he began attending drama classes on Thursday evenings[5] with an amateur dramatics club.
[2] Simpson has often been cast in South Asian roles, although his heritage is mixed European and African.
[15] In 2008, whilst he was artist-in-residence with creative arts group Metal[8] Simpson completed a song cycle, Very Present Tense.
The songs which reference musical idioms, including blues, jazz and Rwandan folk, reflecting his Rwandan and Irish family heritage,[16] The album was developed in collaboration with composer, Tom Havelock.
[17] On 8 August 2008, the song cycle premiered at the arts hub in Edge Hill Station pavilion,[18][19] during the Liverpool European Capital of Culture.
[20] Simpson has narrated audio books for Slumdog Millionaire (originally published as Vikas Swarup's Q & A), E. M. Forster's A Passage to India and Hanif Kureishi's The Buddha of Suburbia.