Christopher Simpson
Acting
Biography
Christopher Crawford Gatsinzi Simpson (born 1975) is an Irish actor. He played Karim in the film adaptation of Monica Ali's novel Brick Lane. Simpson was born in Dublin, Ireland. His father is Irish and his mother was of Greek-Rwandan descent. His father met his mother in Rwanda whilst training to be a teacher. When Simpson was a child he visited Rwanda with his mother. His mother's first language was Kinyarwanda. Simpson lived in Dublin until he was six years old. After his parents divorced, he moved to London with his mother and his sister, Fiona, where he has lived ever since. When Simpson was at primary school, he began attending drama classes on Thursday evenings with an amateur dramatics club. Simpson has often been cast in South Asian roles, although his heritage is mixed European and African. In 2002, he played twins, Magid and Millat, in White Teeth. In 2003, he starred in Second Generation, and appeared in State of Play. In 2003, Simpson played a supporting role in Code 46.In 2004, he played the role of Hassan Sabbah in The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyam. In 2005, he appeared in Chromophobia. In 2006, he played a supporting role in Mischief Night. In 2007, he played the lead role of Karim in the film adaptation of Monica Ali's novel Brick Lane, and a supporting role in Exitz. Simpson had one week to learn the part of Karim for Brick Lane. In 2008, Simpson was a British Independent Film Awards jury member. In 2006, Simpson played the role of Dionysus in Conall Morrison's The Bacchae of Baghdad (an updated version of Euripides's play The Bacchae) at the Abbey Theatre. In 2011, he played the role of Maz in John Donnelly's The Knowledge, and the role of Parvez in Steve Waters' Little Platoons, both at the Bush Theatre. In 2016, he played the role of Sebastian in Bryony Lavery's adaptation of Brideshead Revisited at the English Touring Theatre and UK National Tour.
Known For
The story of a young group of siblings pretty much abandoned by their parents, surviving by their wits - and humor - on a rough Manchester council estate. Whilst they won't admit it, they need help and find it in Steve, a young middle class lad who falls for Fiona, the oldest sibling, and increasingly finds himself drawn to this unconventional and unique family. Anarchic family life seen through the eyes of an exceptionally bright fifteen year old, who struggles to come of age in the context of his belligerent father, closeted brother, psychotic sister and internet porn star neighbors.
Shameless
An extraterrestrial alien arrives on Earth at a turning point in human evolution and must confront his own past to determine our future.
The Man Who Fell to Earth
The story of British-Asian junior doctor Ruby Walker who arrives at the run-down Good Karma Hospital to join a dedicated team of over-worked medics. Run by a gloriously eccentric Englishwoman, Lydia Fonseca, this under-funded but creatively resourceful cottage hospital is the beating heart of the local community. It’s much more than just a medical outpost - it’s a home.
The Good Karma Hospital
In a dystopian future, insurance fraud investigator William Gold arrives in Shanghai to investigate a forgery ring for "papelles", futuristic passports that record people's identities and genetics. Gold falls for Maria Gonzalez, the woman in charge of the forgeries. After a passionate affair, Gold returns home, having named a coworker as the culprit. But when one of Gonzalez's customers is found dead, Gold is sent back to Shanghai to complete the investigation.
Code 46
The lives of three families are woven together across three decades in multi-cultural Britain.
White Teeth
Spooks: Code 9 is a 2008 six-episode BBC spin-off of the spy drama Spooks. In a near-future 2013 Britain following a devastating London terror attack, a new, younger team of MI5 recruits—including Charlie, Rachel, Jez, Vik, Rob, and Kylie—work from a new Manchester headquarters to battle terrorism in a highly surveilled, post-attack world. It offers a younger, more 'maverick' perspective on the Spooks universe, focusing on the challenges of liberty and security in a tense society. The series was commissioned by BBC Fiction's controller Jane Tranter as a spin-off of their long-running drama Spooks in order to attract a younger audience. The decision to relate the new project to the original Spooks was controversial; but there are no crossover characters or storylines and, most importantly, is set in a completely new world.
Spooks: Code 9
A comedy drama about the trials and tribulations of a couple whose extended family never seem to fly the nest.
All About George
Encouraged by his editor to seek 'sexy stories that sell', a reporter preys upon the private life of an erstwhile friend, with disastrous results.
Chromophobia
A second rate film crew is shooting the third in a trilogy of tasteless (yet cheesy) horror flicks called FRIGHT FLICK. The schmuck-of-a-director can't keep his hands off the lead actress, the producer never gets his due credit, the supporting actress knows that SHE should be the lead, and the crew has secrets of their own. Competition in the movie business is tough enough - but anyone on this set would kill to stay on top.
Fright Flick
An explosive two-part drama about love, family and identity - set around the tangled relationships of two Indian families with a deep-rooted, shared history.
Second Generation
Indian mother Mrs Sethi's obsession with marrying off her daughter turns murderous. With jokes that routinely miss the mark and cringeworthy slapstick, this black comedy farce shouldn't work. Somehow, though, it does.
It's a Wonderful Afterlife
How much can we trust our justice system? This landmark experiment follows the restaging of a real-life murder trial in front of two juries of ordinary people. Will they reach the same verdict?
The Jury: Murder Trial
Everyone has Halloween, but in Yorkshire, they have Mischief Night, where madness and mayhem rule. In the course of one night, the barriers that separate two families—one white, one Asian—come tumbling down in a blaze of crime, clubbing, love and fireworks—changing all their lives forever.
Mischief Night
The grind of daily life as a Brick Lane Bangladessi as seen through the eyes of Nazneen (Chatterjee), who at 17 enters an arranged marriage with Chanu (Kaushik). Years later, living in east London with her family, she meets a young man Karim (Simpson).
Brick Lane
Kamran is a 12 year old boy in the present day who discovers that his ancestor is the 11th Century Mathematician, Astronomer, Poet of Persia, Omar Khayyam. The story has been passed down in his family from one generation to another, and now it is his responsibility to keep the story alive for future generations. The film takes us from the modern day to the epic past where the relationship between Omar Khayyam, Hassan Sabbah (the original creator of the sect of Assassins) and their mutual love for a beautiful woman separate them from their eternal bond of friendship. Filmed almost entirely on location in Samarkand and Bukhara, Uzbekistan.
The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyam
An adaptation of Zadie Smith's bestseller concerning the lives of two families from as far back as the 1800s and India to late 1990s Willesden.
White Teeth
Two young, strong-willed Scottish sisters, one a left-wing activist, the other a most-popular-girl-in-school type, take their late father's ashes to Cuba, the site of many family legends of his services to the Revolution. Arriving in Havana, the two women promptly lose the ashes and go through a series of misadventrues - both romantic and dangerous - to try to retrieve them. A colourful and wryly humourous tale of cross-cultural misunderstandings and lost illusions.
Day of the Flowers
Mixture of fictional and non-fictional thought-provoking short films aimed at students of school and college.
Scene
Set in Colonial India in 1925, the hunt for the most notorious man-eating leopard of all time.
The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag
Jumah is about to turn 16 and is already in need of a fresh start. Burdened with the shameful legacy of a past as a child soldier in the Congo, he lives with his adoptive mother in west London, where he struggles to keep a lid on his history of violence. One night, enjoying a rare carefree evening out with a new friend, Jumah witnesses something that draws him seemingly inescapably into his old ways. As he and others around him begin to question whether he can ever stop being a soldier, he’s set on a path to find out who he truly wishes to be.