Born in Edgware, UK, William Simmons trained at The Royal Ballet School (Lower School), The Hammond School of Dance, English National Ballet School, and Ballet Central. He previously danced with Northern Ballet and Estonian National Ballet before joining English National Ballet in 2017.

His featured roles include Mouse King in Wayne Eagling’s Nutcracker; Rothbart in My First Ballet: Swan Lake; and Sahlab in Aaron S. Watkin and Arielle Smith’s Nutcracker. His repertoire also includes George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations; August Bournonville’s La Sylphide; Derek Deane’s Swan Lake, including the in-the-round production; William Forsythe’s Playlist (EP); Anna-Marie Holmes’s Le Corsaire; Ronald Hynd’s Coppélia; Akram Khan’s Giselle; Harald Lander’s Études; Annabelle Lopez-Ochoa’s Broken Wings; Kenneth MacMillan’s The Sleeping Beauty and Manon; Russell Maliphant’s Second Breath; Andrea Miller’s Les Noces (Ascent to Days); Rudolf Nureyev’s Romeo & Juliet; Stina Quagebeur’s Take Five Blues; Tamara Rojo’s Raymonda; and Christopher Wheeldon’s Cinderella in-the-round.

During his time with previous companies, he performed in Robert Binet’s Voces Intimae; John Cranko’s Onegin; the pas d’action from Thomas Edur’s La Bayadère; the Talisman pas de deux; the pas d’esclave from Le Corsaire; and Uwe Scholz’s Second Symphony.