Simons was a child actor, singer and dancer, but his juvenile career was curtailed when he developed a severe skin disease in his teens. He played it down as acne but it was worse than that. He retreated from public view for four years and became a stage manager, behind the scenes, before returning to acting as an adult with the Stables Theatre Company in Manchester. From 2002 on, he was a patron for the charity Changing Faces which helps people with facial disfigurements such as scars.