John Simm

John Ronald Simm (born 10 July 1970) is an English actor, director, and musician.

He is best known for playing Sam Tyler in Life on Mars, the Master in Doctor Who, and DS Roy Grace in Grace. His other television credits include State of Play, The Lakes, Crime and Punishment, Exile, Prey, and Cracker.

His film roles include Wonderland, Everyday, Boston Kickout, Human Traffic and 24 Hour Party People.

He has twice been nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor.

John Ronald Simm was born on 10 July 1970 in Leeds, the eldest of three children.

His father, Ronald, was a musician from Manchester.

From the age of 12, Simm sang and played guitar with his father on stage in the working men's clubs.

He grew up in Lancashire in numerous places around northwest England, including Blackpool, Burnley, Colne, Manchester, and Nelson.

He attended Edge End High School in Nelson, where he was inspired by his drama teacher Brian Wellock.

In 1986, he enrolled in a three-year performing arts course at Blackpool and The Fylde College in Blackpool.

He starred in Guys and Dolls and West Side Story at Blackpool's Grand Theatre.

After appearing in the next college musical, The Boyfriend, he decided that musical theatre did not interest him, and joined an amateur dramatic group to hone his skills in his spare time, playing the title roles in Billy Liar and Amadeus.

He then moved to London at the age of 19 to train at the Drama Centre London, where he studied Stanislavski's system of method acting.

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.

He appeared as a psycho in The Bill, as lovestruck schoolboy Richard Francis in Heartbeat, and as a drugged-up burglar in The Locksmith.

From 1993, he played the lead role of Kendle Bains in two series of the BBC sitcom Men of the World.

In 1995, he undertook the role of Gary Kingston, a deluded murderer, in Chiller.

In 1995, Simm played the troubled teenager Bill Preece in ITV police drama Cracker.

He also made his feature film debut in Boston Kickout, which won the Palmarés (Best) Feature Film award at the 11th Cinema Jove - Valencia International Film Festival 1996.

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

In 1997 - 1999, he played lead role of Danny Kavanagh in The Lakes, a BBC series written by Jimmy McGovern.

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

In 2000, he starred in the opening episode of the BBC drama Clocking Off, written by Paul Abbott, with whom he would work again in 2002 when he starred as Cal McCaffrey in the multi-award-winning political thriller series State of Play.

Simm also played the lead role of loan shark John Parlour in Tony Marchant's Never Never for Channel 4.

In 2002, Simm featured in the film 24 Hour Party People as New Order frontman Bernard Sumner.

It was also this year that he played Raskolnikov in the BBC adaptation of Crime and Punishment, adapted by Tony Marchant.

Marchant also wrote The Knight's Tale, one of a series of modern reworkings of The Canterbury Tales, in which Simm played Ace.

Later that year, Simm starred opposite Christina Ricci and John Hurt in the film Miranda.

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.

After playing Dr. Bruce Flaherty in Howard Davies' production of Joe Penhall's Blue/Orange, Simm starred as Detective Inspector Sam Tyler in the 2006 BBC series Life on Mars, playing a police officer sent back in time to 1973.

The show won the Pioneer Audience Award for Best Programme at the 2007 BAFTA TV Awards, Simm was nominated but lost out on the award for Best Actor.

In March 2007, he starred in Channel 4's The Yellow House, a biographical drama produced by Talkback Thames, about the turbulent relationship of artists Vincent van Gogh (Simm) and Paul Gauguin (John Lynch) when they shared a home named The Yellow House for several months; the production is based on Martin Gayford's book, also titled The Yellow House.

In the same year, Simm returned to the theatre as the title character in Paul Miller's acclaimed Bush Theatre staging of Simon Bent's version of Elling, a comedy about two men just out of a psychiatric hospital adjusting to normal life and to each other.

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

In 2007, Simm was cast by Russell T Davies to play an incarnation of the Master, the nemesis of the Doctor, in the long-running BBC series Doctor Who.

He appeared in the final three episodes of the third series: "Utopia", "The Sound of Drums", and "Last of the Time Lords".

When originally cast, it was announced that he would be playing a character by the name of Mr. Saxon, a name that was later revealed as an alias of The Master.

In 2008, he played Edward Sexby in The Devil's Whore, a four-part English Civil War epic for Channel 4.

He reprised the role in the 2009 two-part special, "The End of Time".

He performed at the Royal Variety Performance with Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller, and starred in the film Skellig, in 2009.