Simon Cellan Jones began his career as a production assistant in the mid-1980s, working on series such as Edge of Darkness. By the late 1980s he had worked his way up to become a director, and he gained credits on some of the most acclaimed British television productions of the 1990s. These included episodes of Cracker (1993) and Our Friends in the North (1996).

He was nominated as the Best Newcomer at the British Academy Film Awards for his first feature film Some Voices (2000). Other television credits have included BBC One's Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking (2004) and More4's The Trial of Tony Blair (2007).