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John Simm made his TV debut in 1992 with a role in the TV series Rumpole of the Bailey. In 1995, he played the troubled teenager Bill Preece in the "Best Boys" episode of the acclaimed ITV police drama, Cracker. He also starred in Boston Kickout and won the Best Actor award at the Valencia Film Festival.

In 1997, he starred in the first series of the critically acclaimed and often controversial The Lakes, a BBC series written by Jimmy McGovern. In 1999, he starred in the second series of The Lakes as well as appearing in Human Traffic and Wonderland.

In 2000, he starred in the opening episode of the acclaimed drama Clocking Off written by Paul Abbott, with whom he would later work on the award-winning political thriller series State of Play.

In 2002, Simm featured in the film 24 Hour Party People as enigmatic New Order frontman Bernard Sumner. At a live concert in Finsbury Park the same year, Simm sang "Digital" onstage with New Order. It was also this year that he played Raskolnikov in the BBC adaptation of his favourite book, Crime and Punishment.

In 2004 he played a researcher and investigator for a charity in a Channel 4 drama Sex Traffic, the hard hitting drama that follows the plight of two young Moldovan sisters sold into sexual slavery.

Simm starred as Detective Inspector Sam Tyler in the popular 2006 BBC series Life on Mars in which he played a police officer apparently sent back in time to 1973. (wikipedia.org)