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Simon Horrocks was born on July 11, 1965, in Palmers Green, North London. He is the son of Anthony Horrocks and Janet Youngs, who separated when he was three. He has an older brother, Nicolas Horrocks, and a younger half-brother, Nathan Horrocks.
During his early childhood, Simon lived on an arts and crafts commune in Somerset. After his father saw Easy Rider in 1969, he left his position as a lecturer at Hornsey School of Art and led a group of artists to establish an alternative lifestyle on a farmhouse converted into studios.
Simon began making films at age eight, using a clockwork 8mm camera. When he was nine, his father moved to St Lucia, and Simon returned to live with his mother and stepfather, Iain Manson, attending St Dunstans Secondary School. At 13, the family relocated back to North London, where Simon has mostly lived since, except for two years in Brighton from 1988 to 1990.
In 1983-84, he completed a Foundation in Art & Design at Middlesex University, collaborating on 8mm films with Jonathan Glazer (known for Sexy Beast and Under the Skin). Although he applied for a Fine Art Film degree at St Martin's University, he was not accepted and instead pursued a career in music.
In 1991, he formed the pop-dance duo Aquarius with his then partner, Sarah Jane Fogg. Their debut single, "Hey Babe," was named Melody Maker's "Single of the Week" in January 1993, shortly after the birth of their son, Titus. The track, entirely self-promoted, received airplay on Radio 1, notably from DJ John Peel.
Despite this exposure, the single failed commercially because the record label, Solid Pleasure (owned by Yello's Dieter Meier), did not distribute it to stores, doubting it would attract media attention.
Horrocks and Fogg later produced Tara Newley's unreleased debut album for Trevor Horn's ZTT label. From 1997 onward, they worked for the major publishing company Carlin Music, which was eventually acquired by Warner Chappell.
Following his split from Sarah Fogg in 2008, Horrocks began working on his debut feature film, Third Contact, in 2009. Filmed with a consumer camcorder, no crew, and a budget of £4,000, the project took three years to complete.
On September 2, 2013, Third Contact made history as the first self-funded micro-budget film to screen during peak hours at London's BFI IMAX. It was also the first full-length fiction film to premiere in theaters while simultaneously broadcasting live to over 20 countries, followed by a director's Q&A via Twitter and Google Hangout.
Shot on a consumer camcorder without a professional crew and with a £4,000 budget, Third Contact premiered at the prestigious Hof Film Festival in Germany. The German press responded positively, with award-winning critic Thomas Rothschild calling it a "masterpiece" and comparing it to the works of Evald Schorm and Ken Loach.
