Simon Baker is Creative Director at Emma Rice Company and a Tony and Olivier Award-winning sound designer.

He graduated from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 1992 and spent the first part of his career in the sound departments of the Royal Court, the RSC and the National Theatre, where he was sound supervisor. In 1999 he joined Autograph, the leading British sound design and rental company, and stayed for eleven years before returning to freelance life in 2010.

For Emma Rice Company, Simon has designed sound, and in several cases video, for Tristan & Yseult, North by Northwest, Blue Beard, The Little Matchgirl and Happier Tales, Wuthering Heights, Bagdad Café, Romantics Anonymous, Malory Towers and Wise Children. His work with Emma Rice goes back to Kneehigh, on productions including Brief Encounter, The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk, 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, Rebecca, The Wild Bride and The Red Shoes, and continued at Shakespeare’s Globe with A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night and Romantics Anonymous. He also designed the sound system installed at the Globe during her time as Artistic Director.

Simon is an Associate Artist at The Old Vic, where his productions include A Christmas Carol (also Broadway, US tour and Australia), Girl From the North Country (also West End, Broadway and international tours), Groundhog Day (also Broadway and Australia), The Constituent, Present Laughter, Lungs, The Caretaker, The Master Builder, Future Conditional, High Society, Electra, Hedda Gabler, The Real Thing and The Norman Conquests (also Broadway). In 2020 he designed the theatre’s live-streamed In Camera productions of Lungs, Three Kings, Faith Healer and A Christmas Carol.

Other theatre includes Matilda The Musical (RSC, West End and worldwide); One Day (Royal Lyceum Edinburgh and West End); The Buddha of Suburbia (RSC and Barbican); Hamnet, Shakespeare in Love, The Lord of the Rings, Mojo, Arcadia and Deathtrap (West End); Boeing Boeing, God of Carnage and La Bête (West End and Broadway); Hex, Pinocchio, The Light Princess and The Amen Corner (National Theatre); The Secret Life of Bees (Almeida); Standing at the Sky’s Edge, My Fair Lady, Oliver and Me and my Girl (Sheffield Crucible); The Grinning Man (Bristol Old Vic and West End); and The Artist (Theatre Royal Plymouth).

Alongside his design work, Simon has written music for several shows, including Rebecca and North By Northwest, and has produced soundtrack albums and a radio drama for the BBC.

Simon won the Tony Award for Best Sound Design of a Play for A Christmas Carol, and the Olivier, Helpmann and Green Room Awards for Matilda The Musical. He received The Stage Award for Achievement in Technical Theatre for his streaming work with the company during the pandemic, and was named Sound Designer of the Year at LDI in 2003.

He has been Tony-nominated for Girl From the North Country, Brief Encounter and Boeing-Boeing; Olivier-nominated for The Lord of the Rings, Brief Encounter and The Light Princess; and Drama Desk-nominated for Girl From the North Country, 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips and, for video design, Wuthering Heights. He was also nominated for a Dora Award for The Lord of the Rings in Toronto and a WhatsOnStage Award for musical supervision on The Buddha of Suburbia, and was an Outer Critics Circle honoree for A Christmas Carol.

He is a Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.