Simon’s original career was in theatre as both a playwright and director. His plays include (in chronological order) Stopwork!, Occupied, Buffaloes Can’t Fly, Moving On Moving On, Greenants Whitecans, Sail, The Wreck of the Loch Ard and with Helen O’Connor, Lipstick Dreams, Wedding Games and Happy Families.
He had a long association with the Melbourne Theatre Company as Youth Director, Resident Dramatist and Associate Director. He is a former Artistic Director of the Darwin Theatre Company, the Australian Theatre for Young People and the New England Theatre Company.
For the last twenty five years his career has been focused on children’s television and is one of the most experienced writers and script producers in that field. He was a co-creator of the original Bananas in Pyjamas TV series, writing more than 100 episodes, 4 half-hour specials, 70 songs (with 2 ARIA nominations), a stage show and two award winning CD-ROMs for B1 and B2. He also co-created the series New Macdonald’s Farm (Channel 9) and Larry, the Lawnmower (10 Network). In addition to writing for many children’s television series he was script producer for the animated series I Got A Rocket and Erky Perky, as well as the first series of the live-action drama My Place.
From 2009 to 2015 Simon was Commissioning Editor, ABC Children’s Television. Shows he steered through development and the executive produced in production during this time include; Nowhere Boys series 1 & 2 (Logies, AACTA and International Emmy awards), My Place series 2 (Logie and AACTA awards), Dance Academy series 2 & 3 (Logie and AACTA awards), Ready For This (Logie and AACTA awards), The Adventures of Figaro Pho (AACTA award), Tomorrow When The War Began, Little Lunch, and You’re Skitting Me. He was also responsible for developing the ABC’s relationship with China Central Television (CCTV) and was Executive Producer on two co-productions, Quest and Hoopla Doopla!.
For ten years Simon was a consultant to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) on children’s programs classification. He is a former President of the Australian Writers’ Guild from which he received the prestigious Richard Lane Award.
