Simkins was born in Brighton, Sussex. He attended Brighton, Hove and Sussex Grammar School and while still at school performed works by Gilbert and Sullivan in a group called the Wandering Minstrels, which he co-founded in Brighton in the 1970s.

Simkins graduated from RADA in the mid-1970s in the same year as Timothy Spall and is now an Associate Member of RADA.

Books

His autobiography, What's My Motivation, published in March 2004, describes the highs and lows of a jobbing actor. This work came out of a series of weekly articles published in The Guardian.

In 2007 Simkins published Fatty Batter, a book about his lifelong obsession with cricket. The book tells how, from his earliest awkward days as a fat boy growing up in Brighton to his years running a team of dysfunctional inadequates still chasing the sweet spot, cricket offered him a shelter from life's irksome realities and a place in which to quietly dream. The book was shortlisted for the Costa book prize and has sold well in excess of 40,000 copies.

In 2009 Detour De France: An Englishman In Search Of A Continental Education by Michael Simkins, is published by Ebury on May 7. Michael decided to take a break from his day-job as an actor to spend three months discovering his very own Gallic fantasy.

Acting

Simkins has starred in film and television (including a recurring character in Foyle's War) as well as West End theatre productions including Mamma Mia! and Chicago. In the late 1980s he starred in a short video on energy conservation with Rebecca Front. In 1996, Simkins played Paul in the Sondheim Musical Company directed by Sam Mendes. From 16 April 2007, Simkins played the character Billy Flynn in the London production of Chicago at the Cambridge Theatre. This is the role played by Richard Gere in the 2002 film version. He also played the role of Sam Carmichael in the stage version of Mamma Mia, a role played in the 2008 film version by Pierce Brosnan.

Michael can regularly be seen playing Dr Lionel Mead in the TV series Doctors.

He is married to the actress Julia Deakin.

He appeared in Donkeys Years in the West End and directed the national tour in Autumn 2007

In June 2009, he will be appearing in Rodgers & Hammerstein's The King and I at the Royal Albert Hall.