He has twice been nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor John Ronald Simm was born on 10 July 1970 in Leeds,[2] the eldest of three children.

[4] In 1992, Simm made his professional acting debut playing the role of Joby Johnson in an episode of the TV series Rumpole of the Bailey.

[10] In 1996, he made his professional stage debut in the Simon Bent play Goldhawk Road at the Bush Theatre, directed by Paul Miller.

In 1999, he starred as Jip in the award-winning cult clubbing film Human Traffic[9] and as Eddie in Michael Winterbottom's Wonderland.

In 2004, he played the researcher and charity investigator Daniel Appleton in the BAFTA award-winning Channel 4 drama Sex Traffic, which followed the plight of two young Moldovan sisters sold into sexual slavery: earning Simm a best actor nomination at the 20th Gemini Awards.

[15] Following positive press reviews and an extended, sell-out run, the production was transferred to the Trafalgar Studios in July 2007[16] and Simm was nominated for an Olivier Award for his performance.

Simm became involved in an ongoing project with Michael Winterbottom called Everyday, to be filmed in real time over five years.

Simm returned to the West End stage in autumn of 2009 to critical acclaim, starring in the Andrew Bovell play Speaking in Tongues at the Duke of York's Theatre.

Mad Dogs became a critical and ratings success and received a BAFTA nomination for best drama serial, and a second and third series were commissioned.

On BBC One in May 2011, Simm starred as Tom Rondstadt in Exile, alongside Jim Broadbent, Olivia Colman, and his wife, Kate Magowan.

[24] From May to August 2013, he returned to Trafalgar Studios in London's West End to star opposite Simon Russell Beale in a new production of Harold Pinter's The Hothouse, directed by Jamie Lloyd.

The series aired on BBC America in August 2014, and also starred Mira Sorvino, James Frain and Millie Bobby Brown.

Later that year, Simm played Alec Jeffreys, the man who discovered DNA fingerprinting, in Code of a Killer, a two-part drama for ITV.

He appeared for the first time at The National Theatre, playing the role of Rakitin to great acclaim, in Patrick Marber's Three Days in the Country, (a version of Turgenev's A Month in the Country) and was reunited with Jamie Lloyd, playing the role of Lenny in the 50th anniversary production of Harold Pinter's The Homecoming in London's West End.

Starring Mireille Enos and Peter Krause, the show was executive produced by Shonda Rhimes and filmed at Sunset Bronson studios and on location around Los Angeles.

[29] In 2024, Simm will play Ebenezer Scrooge in Jack Thorne's adaptation of A Christmas Carol at The Old Vic, directed by Matthew Warchus.

He also played lead guitar on a few of McCulloch's solo live shows, including one at Wembley Arena as the main support to Coldplay.