Coming from a Portuguese and Finnish background Simão has lived and worked as an actor/director in Lisbon, London and Luxembourg. After completing his BA in Drama and Theatre Arts at Goldsmiths University, London in 2006, he took part in a Performance Art Workshop taught by Third Angel at the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon. As an actor he has worked with directors such as Werner Schroeter and Roberto Faenza. In 2007, his short film The Blind Voyeur was awarded the Jury Prize by Werner Herzog in the FILMAKA Film Festival Competition.
Simao is currently enrolled in the Film MFA program at Columbia University, New York and is a Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Fellow. In New York, he has worked at Protozoa Pictures, Darren Aronofsky’s production company.
His short film A Viagem (The Trip) was selected for the ASCAP/Columbia Film scoring workshop and had its international premiere at the Cinéfondation Shorts Section of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.