Simon Anthony

Simon Anthony Abou-Fadel's French/Lebanese father, Edward, and French/Egyptian mother, Françoise, settled in North Hollywood in 1969. His father spent a career at Texaco Inc. where he also met his second wife Pamela. Simon's mother Françoise's career was spent in ticketing services with Saudi Arabia Airlines. The youngest of their four children, Simon was born in North Hollywood and remembers the orange trees, blue skies, beaches, backyard barbecues and his grandmother Germaine who immigrated to California from Lyon, France to support the family. Perhaps most poignantly he remembers the nights he and his older brother would wait up to watch the family's garage door for the first flickering reflections from the screen of the nearby drive-in movie. From those nights, he marks his fascination with movie screens, with the actors who inhabit them, and with the industry that was then only a few streets away. Simon's parents eventually moved the family to Spring, Texas where he graduated from Klein High School. Later, Edward and Pamela built a business supplying fleet services to large companies and his father wanted Simon to eventually work at the business. Simon enrolled at Stephen F. Austin University and, encouraged by his father and supported by his loving step mother, worked towards an honours degree in finance but he couldn't keep away from acting. Along the way his childhood dream caught up with him when he took an elective acting class during his second year in college. He performed a monologue in the Black Box Studio Theatre that changed his life forever. If it's possible to be bitten by the acting bug, Simon at twenty-one was swallowed whole, experiencing a sense of peace and belonging that he was never to forget. One way or the other, he now knew he would do this for the rest of his life. He spent every hour of spare time in the theatre department, rehearsing scenes and taking classes. He auditioned for every college play and was quickly cast in many, accumulating an impressive collection of credits including a "Best Supporting Actor" award as the Prince of Aragon in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. Simon eventually graduated from the University of Houston with almost a double major in finance and fine arts (theatre). His father still wanted him to join the fleet services company but Simon quickly entered the Masters of Fine Arts theatre program at Western Illinois University outside of Chicago. He was awarded a three-year scholarship and taught undergrads an introduction to the theatre and began to perform in the university plays once again under Sonny Bell. Simon soon landed a one-year contract as a performing apprentice at The Children's Theatre in Minneapolis, the largest of its type in the country. It was at the Children's that he met and eventually married actress Anna Sommer who was raised in the Eastern Townships of Québec. Several years of acting in Minneapolis followed before the couple debated whether to move to New York or Los Angeles, finally deciding in favour of the orange groves, the blue sky, the open spaces, the lower rents and the big movie screens. In Hollywood Simon became a resident company member at The Actors Gang Theatre, under Artistic Director and film actor Tim Robbins. During his seven years with the Gang, he toured nationally in Embedded, an original play by Robbins, and appeared in a critically acclaimed production of Tartuffe directed by Jon Kellam in which he was reviewed by the Hollywood Reporter that touted his "strong support". Backstage also affectionately praised him and scene partner Lindsley Allen for their scenes, and the Los Angeles Times claimed Allen and he "attained absolute lunacy". While at The Gang, Simon accepted an invitation from the Walt Disney Concert Hall to act in a two-person play with the L.A. Philharmonic Orchestra providing live background music. He also landed roles on notable network shows such as Veronica Mars, 24, and Law and Order Los Angeles. The kid who'd watched "movies" on his garage door at five was in hog heaven as his career began to take shape. In 2012, Simon moved with his wife and children to Montréal, where he continues working in theatre, film, and television. He has played Adrian Holmes' lawyer in the English version of 19-2, Ed Greenstein in the reboot of iconic Canadian television show Street Legal, and acted with Mia Kirshner in The Detectives, David James Elliot in Real Detectives and opposite Trish Helfner in Ascension. Among others, he can be seen in Quantico, The Art of More, The Bold Type, The Republic of Sarah and Transplant with John Hannah and Hamza Haq. Simon Anthony Abou-Fadel is also the narrator for the new IMAX film entitled Train Time.