Having gained a First Class Honours degree in sculpture from Bath Academy of Arts in 1983, Simon showed his work around Europe and the UK. But a burgeoning social conscience and eagerness to see how other people lived their lives led him to a five-year stint as a community worker on a travellers' site, later moving on to become senior youth worker at a rural activities centre for London teenagers.

After numerous arrests for campaigning against South African Apartheid and other social issues, Simon worked with the McLibel Campaign and as an AIDS researcher for a prostitutes' collective. While at the NFTS, he began to develop ways to make films about important issues in an entertaining way. His graduation film, The Company We Keep, won the Royal Television Society's Best Factual Film Award in the postgraduate category.


Films at the NFTS include...
Playing Dead Cannes Film Festival 2004 - Cinefondation section; Luciana Film Festival - Special Prize of the Jury; Rencontres Internationales Henri Langlois, Poitiers - Discovery Prize
The Company We Keep Dinard; Royal Television Society Student Television Awards - Best Factual Film
When the Pie Was Opened (Sheffield International Documentary Festival)
Far and Near (Producer: Edinburgh International Film Festival; Sheffield International Documentary Festival; OxDox; Winner, Becks Futures 2003; broadcast Channel 4)
My Bengali Friends
In the Woods