Born in Tasmania, Simon Thorpe studied at the Guildhall School of Music, where he was awarded the Harold Rosenthal Prize. He spent a year at the National Opera Studio. A finalist in the Kathleen Ferrier Competition, he now studies with Robert Dean.

In the UK, his engagements have included Escamillo Carmen and Pacheco Inés de Castro (Scottish Opera), Zurga Les pêcheurs des perles, Lescaut Manon Lescaut and Sharpless Madama Butterfly (Opera Holland Park), Escamillo Carmen and Germont Père La traviata (ETO), Donald Billy Budd, The Foreman Jenufa and Marcello La bohème and Ford Falstaff (WNO), Kuligin Katya Kabanova and Marcello Rigoletto (Opera North), Alfio Cavalleria Rusticana and Guglielmo Le Villi (Chelsea Opera Group) and Sharpless Madama Butterfly (Opera North).

He sang Pacheco Inés de Castro (Scottish Opera in Lisbon), Sharpless Madama Butterfly and Scarpia Tosca (Lyric Opera) and Sharpless Tosca (Singapore Lyric Opera), whilst his engagements in The Antipodes have included The Steward Flight and Roucher Andrea Chénier (State Opera of South Australia) and The Forester The Cunning Little Vixen, Private Willis Iolanthe and Montano Otello (Opera Australia).