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.

Engagements include Escamillo Carmen, Pacheco Inés de Castro (Scottish Opera); Zurga Les pêcheurs des perles, Alfio Cavalleria rusticana (Dorset Opera); Zurga, Lescaut Manon Lescaut, Sharpless Madama Butterfly (Opera Holland Park); Escamillo, Giorgio Germont La traviata (ETO); Donald Billy Budd, Belcore The Elixir of Love, Foreman Jenůfa, Marcello La bohème, Ford Falstaff (WNO); Duke Roméo et Juliette, Kuligin Katya Kabanova, Sharpless, Marullo Rigoletto (Opera North); Guglielmo Le Villi (Chelsea Opera Group); Sharpless, Scarpia Tosca (Lyric Opera, Dublin); Dr Falke Die Fledermaus (London Lyric Opera); Eternal Light: A Requiem (Rambert Dance Company). International engagements include The Steward Flight, Roucher Andrea Chénier (State Opera of South Australia); The Forester The Cunning Little Vixen, Private Willis Iolanthe, Montano Otello (Opera Australia); Sharpless (Singapore Lyric Opera); Anckarström Un ballo in maschera (Cork Opera 2005).

Recordings include Second Mate / Arthur Jones Billy Budd with Kent Nagano and the Hallé (Erato).