Biography

January 1, 1960 · Leicester, England

Josette Patricia Simon

5′ 6″ (1.68 m)

She was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2000 Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to drama.

In 1990, she was awarded the London Evening Standard Theatre Award and the London Critics Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Drama for her performance in Arthur Miller's play, "After the Fall.".

Keen exponent of Ashtanga yoga.

Has an interpreter qualification in British Sign Language; she undertook this in order to communicate with a friend's deaf son.

[on starting out] My best friend saw an advert in the Leicester Mercury for kids to audition for 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat', and didn't want to go on her own. We both auditioned and got in. Then we got into pantomime. After a few years, a couple of directors cast me in plays and everyone kept saying I should be an actress. I said I didn't want to, then it hit me: that was all I wanted to do. I applied to the Central School of Speech and Drama, finished my O-levels and off I went.

I stand up for what I believe in and I put my money where my mouth is.

[on what she admires] Truth in all things. And you should always do things that terrify you - they teach you the most.

I've had to stand on my own two feet for much of my life.