About SimonSays Entertainment
SimonSays Entertainment, Inc. was founded in 2009 with the mission to Tell Every Story. The company develops diverse projects for film, television, and live Theatre. SimonSays was founded by Ron Simons, a working actor and producer, whose multi-faceted background includes business and the arts.
The company’s first feature film, Night Catches Us, premiered at Sundance 2010 as a Grand Jury Nominee and will be available on DVD February 1, 2011. The firm has just wrapped it’s second feature, Gun Hill Road.
SimonSays Entertainment has a number of other projects in development, including feature films, plays, and an animated television series. The company develops projects that represent indigenous and underrepresented minority cultures from all reaches of the globe. SimonSays Entertainment seeks to work with writers, directors, and storytellers who bring their lives and communities to light.
Ron Simons Biography
Mr. Simons is founder and president of SimonSays Entertainment–a film, stage, and television production company dedicated to developing, and presenting, the stories, fables, and narratives of under-represented communities. The first film project of SimonSays Entertainment is Night Catches Us starring Anthony Mackie, Kerry Washington, and Wendell Pierce. The film premiered January 2010 at Sundance.
Mr. Simons is a professional actor and producer based in New York City. He has appeared in film and television with credits in projects such as 27 Dresses, Mystery Team, Law & Order and Law & Order: CI. He shares the London Stage Award for Acting Excellence for a play he co-developed: Boy Steals Train.
After earning his MBA in Marketing and International Business, he became a marketing executive at the Microsoft Corporation managing multi-million dollar marketing campaigns for the Microsoft Mail family of products. Mr. Simons is the recipient of the Heritage Award from Columbia College’s Black Alumni Council and is a Johnson & Johnson Leadership Award Fellow. Mr. Simons holds a BA from Columbia College, an MBA from Columbia Business School, and an MFA from the University of Washington’s Professional Actor Training Program.
April Yvette Thompson's Biography
SimonSays Entertainment Producing Associate, April Yvette Thompson, is involved in strategic planning and development of Film, TV and Theatre projects including critically acclaimed Night Catches Us starring Kerry Washington & Anthony Mackie (dir. Tanya Hamilton); the soon to be released Gun Hill Road starring Esai Morales and Judy Reyes (dir. Rashaad Ernesto Green) and pre-production of the feature Highway to Nowhere (dir. Lanre Olabisi).
Currently working on her second play in the Miami Trilogy of plays: Good Bread Alley, with the support of New York Theatre Workshop and Harlem Stage’s Fund for New Work, April is a critically acclaimed actor/writer nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show and Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Broadway.com Audience and AUDELCO nominations for Best Solo Performance for the world premiere of Liberty City at New York Theatre Workshop which she co-wrote with Jessica Blank (The Exonerated). In the film world, April has co-starred in The Exonerated with Danny Glover, Aidan Quinn, Delroy Lindo & Susan Sarandon (dir. Bob Balaban) for Court TV. April is featured in the Phoebe in Wonderland with Felicity Huffman & Bill Pullman (dir. Daniel Barnz); Accidental Husband with Uma Thurman (dir. Griffin Dunne); Bernard & Doris with Ralph Fiennes & Susan Sarandon, (dir. Bob Balaban) and starred in independent films I Am Ali at Sundance (dir. Dream Hampton), The Commitments (dir. Anika Gibbons) for Comedy Central and Enough (dir. Carlos Millan) for Invalid Productions. April's television work includes Third Watch, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The Dave Chappelle Show, Guiding Light and As The World Turns. In the world of theatre, April is known for the Off Broadway premieres of The Exonerated (dir. Bob Balaban), Tanya Barfield & Lynn Nottage's The Antigone Project at The Women's Project; Kia Corthron's Light Raise the Roof at NYTW; Zakiyyah Alexander's SICK???, Susan-Lori Parks' 365 Plays/365 Days at NYTW & The Public Theatre, The Acting Company's The Rivals, Macbeth and The Merry Wives of Windsor; April received AUDELCO nominations for her Medea, Macbeth, King Lear and The Blacks at the Classical Theatre of Harlem. April has a BA in English from Vassar College and an MFA from Rutgers University Professional Actor Training Program.