Simon Phillip Hugh Callow, CBE (born 15 June 1949) is an English actor. Known as a character actor of stage and screen, he has received numerous awards, including a Laurence Olivier Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, as well as nominations for two BAFTA Awards. In 1999, Queen Elizabeth II appointed him a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to acting.

Callow came to prominence for his portrayal of the title role of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Peter Shaffer's 1979 play Amadeus, for which he received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Callow joined Miloš Forman's 1984 film adaptation, this time playing Emanuel Schikaneder. In 1992, Callow won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director of a Musical for Carmen Jones. As an actor, he gained acclaim for comedic roles in the films A Room with a View (1985) and Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), for each of which he was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Other notable roles include Maurice (1987), Howards End (1992), Shakespeare in Love (1998), and The Phantom of the Opera (2004).

His television roles include Tom Chance in the Channel 4 series Chance in a Million (1984) and the Duke of Sandringham in the series Outlander from 2014 to 2016. He portrayed Napoleon in The Man of Destiny (1981) and Charles Dickens in numerous television projects. He has also appeared in many shows, such as Midsomer Murders, Rome, Angels in America, Doctor Who, Galavant, Hawkeye, and The Witcher.

Callow was born on 15 June 1949 in Streatham, South London, to Yvonne Mary (née Guise), a secretary, and Neil Francis Callow, a businessman. His father was of French descent, and his mother was of Danish and German descent. His father left when Simon was 18 months old, and he was raised by his mother and grandmothers. He and his mother went to Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) when he was nine years old to try to reconcile with his father. This did not happen, and Callow was sent to a boarding school in South Africa for three years. He and his mother returned to Britain when he was twelve. He was raised Catholic. Callow attended the London Oratory School in West Brompton, and then briefly attended Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland, where he was active in the gay liberation movement.[5] He dropped out of his degree course after a year to take a three-year acting course at the London Drama Centre.