Simon Richard Evans (born 31 December 1983) is an English theatre and television director, writer, and actor. He is best known as co-creator, writer, and producer of BBC One' Staged (2020âÂÂ2022), in which he also co-stars as a fictionalised version of himself.
Evans was raised in Oxford with his sister, actress Lucy Eaton, while his parents ran a dental practice in nearby Kidlington. He was educated at The Dragon School and Abingdon School, where his fellow alumni include Tom Hollander, Toby Jones, Hugh Laurie and members of Radiohead. He studied Education, English, Drama & the Arts at Homerton College, Cambridge.
As a theatre director, Evans' productions include The Dazzle (starring Andrew Scott), Bug (James Norton), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Lenny Henry), Killer Joe (Orlando Bloom) and A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (Toby Stephens and Claire Skinner).
As an actor, Evans' early roles include parts in Stig of the Dump (2002) and Lewis (2007).
Working with Secret Cinema, Simon directed immersive productions of Shawshank Redemption and Millers Crossing.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Evans wrote, directed and co-starred in the BBC Television series Staged, playing himself, alongside exaggerated versions of the show's stars, Michael Sheen and David Tennant. The series was notable for being made using video conferencing technology. Evans had been due to rehearse Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing at Chichester when lockdown came into effect. His cinematic directorial debut, Hunter in the Dark, was also postponed.
Following Staged, Evans hosted and directed another lockdown event, a live-streamed Oxford Playhouse fundraiser, A Theatre Near You, starring Stephen Fry, Marcus Brigstocke, and Lucy Porter.
In 2025, directed Inside No. 9 Stage/Fright written by and starring Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton at the Wyndham's Theatre before touring the UK, ending with a run at the Hammersmith Apollo. The same year, Evans directed and co-wrote with Debris Stevenson a new adaptation of Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac for the Royal Shakespeare Company starring Adrian Lester and Susannah Fielding. Following the success in Stratford-upon-Avon, the production will transfer to the Noël Coward Theatre in June 2026.
Evans is the founding director of the theatre company, Myriad Entertainment, along with Georgia Clarke-Day and David Frias Robles.
As of 2020, he lives in Noke, Oxfordshire.