# Adam Simon

Adam Simon (born February 6, 1962) is an American director, producer, and screenwriter. His directing credits include Brain Dead (1990), Body Chemistry II: The Voice of a Stranger (1992), and Carnosaur (1993). Simon, along with producer Brannon Braga, co-created the television series Salem. As a screenwriter, Simon is known for Bones (2001), The Haunting in Connecticut (2009), and Books of Blood (2020).

## Career

He plays a humorous version of himself, pitching a project and getting barred from the studio lot, in the famous opening-shot of Robert Altman's The Player (1992). He previously appeared, thinly veiled, as a fictional character in Christopher Guest's film The Big Picture (1989) and would reappear in Kim Newman's novel Johnny Alucard (2013), where he again pitches a project and becomes the only person in Hollywood standing up to a particularly sinister studio executive.
Kim Newman has noted that Adam Simon has "become one of the most oft-cited figures in contemporary Hollywood satire, and those in the know have begun to play the game of Simon-spotting. [...] Remarkable look- and act-alikes for Adam Simon have appeared in a couple of sinister Hollywood satires: Adam Rafkin (Jarrad Paul) on the cancelled-too-soon TV series Action, who ruins his emotional and physical health on successive drafts of Beverly Hills Gun Club for sleazy überproducer Peter Dragon (Jay Mohr); and Adam Kesher (Justin Theroux) in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, who finds his entire life - and film project - jeopardised when he considers going against the wishes of backers who represent either organised crime or Hell."

## Filmography
### Film

| Title | Year | Credited as | Credited as | Credited as | Notes |
| Title | Year | Director | Producer | Writer | Notes |
| Lock Up | 1989 | No | Co- | No | |
| Brain Dead | 1990 | Yes | No | Yes | |
| Body Chemistry II: The Voice of a Stranger | 1992 | Yes | No | No | |
| Carnosaur | 1993 | Yes | No | Yes | |
| The Typewriter, the Rifle & the Movie Camera | 1996 | Yes | No | Yes | Documentary film |
| The American Nightmare | 2000 | Yes | No | Yes | Documentary film |
| John Landis on: An American Werewolf in London | 2001 | Yes | No | No | Featurette |
| Bones | 2001 | No | No | Yes | |
| The Spectre of Hope | 2002 | No | Yes | No | Documentary film |
| The Haunting in Connecticut | 2009 | No | No | Yes | |
| Captive State | 2019 | No | Executive | No | |
| Books of Blood | 2020 | No | Executive | Yes | |

### Television

| Title | Year | Credited as | Credited as | Credited as | Credited as | Notes |
| Title | Year | Creator | Director | Writer | Executive producer | Notes |
| Directors on Directors | 1997 | No | Yes (1) | No | No | Docuseries, Episode "Simon - Corman" |
| BlackBoxTV | 2012 | No | No | Yes (1) | No | Anthology series |
| Salem | 2014–17 | Yes | No | Yes (21) | Yes | |
| Next | 2020 | No | No | Yes (3) | Co-executive | Co-executive producer (9 episodes) |

### Actor

| Title | Year | Role | Notes |
| The Unborn | 1991 | Priest | |
| Bob Roberts | 1992 | Cutting edge head writer | |
| The Player | 1992 | Adam Simon | |
| Directors on Directors | 1997 | Himself | Docuseries, Episode "Simon - Corman" |
| Digging Up Bones | 2002 | Himself | Featurette documentary |
| Urban Gothic: Bones and Its Influences | 2002 | Himself | Featurette documentary |
| The Brains Behind the Nightmare | 2020 | Himself | Featurette documentary |
| Tales from the Cranium | 2020 | Himself | Featurette documentary |