From an early age Simon has always drawn cartoons. He studied Graphics and Animation at De Montfort University, and for the past ten years he has worked in London as an Animator and Director at Tandem Films. Simon’s Cat began as a simple exercise to learn the mechanics of the Flash animation program. Simon was sitting at his computer when his kitten (named Hugh) appeared and begun batting him with his paw. So Simon began to make an animation using his kitten as a muse. This animation became Cat Man Do. Simon never intended to release his short film – but when he agreed to let a client use his animation on their website, he was stunned to learn that it received 60,000 hits over just two nights. It was put up on YouTube and came to the attention of millions of people worldwide. Cat Man Do went on to win the award for Best Comedy at the British Animation Awards in 2008. Simon went on to make other animated short films (one of which – Fed Up - was made for the RSPCA). Collectively, they are nowpopularly known as Simon’s Cat. In October 2009, the first of two Simon’s Cat Books (“Simon’s Cat In His Very Own Book”) was published by Canongate and released worldwide.