Simon Curtis (actor)

Simon Curtis (born March 18, 1986) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor. Born in Michigan and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he first gained recognition for his role as Royce Du Lac in the 2009 film Spectacular! before venturing into pop music, during which he released his debut extended play Alter Boy in 2008, his debut full-length studio album, 8Bit Heart in 2010, and in 2011, he released his second studio album (and first commercial release) RA; the two later releases were released through his independent label, BoyRobot Records.

Simon Curtis
Curtis in May 2011
Background information
Born (1986-03-18) March 18, 1986[1]
Michigan, United States
GenresElectronic, dance-pop
Occupation(s)Singer-songwriter, actor, record producer, novelist[2]
Years active2006–present
Associated actsFrankmusik, Sky Ferreira
Websitewww.simon-curtis.com

RA debuted at number 20 on Billboard's Dance/Electronic Albums chart.[3]

Early and Personal life

Simon Curtis was born in the state of Michigan, United States, and spent his earliest years in Alpena.[4] His family later moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma.[5] At the age of ten, he was diagnosed with leukemia.[6][7] He graduated from Jenks High School in 2004.[8][9] Curtis earned a coveted role in the national tour production of the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.[10] Simon is openly gay.[11]

Career

Early career: 2002–2006

Curtis won Popstar Magazine and Johnny Wright's "Get Famous" contest,[12] was named a national top ten finalist in the "Britney Spears Samsung Superstar Tour", was commissioned by Disney to provide a theme song for an annual Disneyland event, was named an official Oklahoma Ambassador of Music, and won the University of Tulsa Award for Outstanding Achievement in Performance.

At 20, Curtis began recording with local record producer Jadion. There they began the sessions that would ultimately result in Curtis' début album Alter Boy EP. Curtis and Jadion were commissioned by Disney to deliver a theme song for the annual Disneyland Resort event, Flashback, which later became a charity single benefiting the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of America.

2009–2010: Spectacular! and 8Bit Heart

Curtis made his film debut when he landed the role of Royce Du Lac on Nickelodeon's musical TV movie Spectacular! in 2009.[13]

In late 2009, Curtis once again began to work on his musical career. He teamed up with friend producer Jeff "Jadion" Wells and in about thirteen days, he wrote and recorded 8Bit Heart. He chose to release the album for free on his official website after meeting the goal of six thousand followers on his Twitter profile. The album was well received by the pop community and was downloaded over 150,000 times in the two weeks following its release. Curtis did this without a manager or record label.[14] He was the opening act of Backstreet Boys member AJ McLean on May 6, 2010, at the Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood, California.

2011: RA

On May 16, 2011, Curtis released the first single from his second album RA (stylized as R∆) titled "Superhero" as well as a remix titled "Superhero (The Remix)" on his independent label BoyRobot Records through the iTunes Store.[15] The second single from the album, titled "Flesh", was released May 31,[16] along with a remix titled "Flesh (Future Freestyle Remix)".[17] On June 7, he released the full-length album[18] and it debuted at number 20 on Billboard's Dance/Electronic Albums chart.[3][19]

2012–2015: WWW, Wrathschild and Fuse Literary

Curtis released a free EP, WWW',[20] on October 12, 2013. It consisted of eight new songs and three alternate covers. Although his sexuality had been questioned beforehand, it was the criticism towards this album's artwork for being "too gay" that led him to defend himself, saying "Love that I'm getting so much heat for my new album artwork being "too gay" on national coming out day." He followed this up with, "With that said, I am gay. *makes dance album, wears midriff-bearing tshirt, puts neon pink leopard font on cover, doesn't care*".[21]

According to an article published on Popjustice on March 20, 2014, Curtis is now part of an electropop duo called Wrathschild which has been working with producer Ray Reich over the past two years. The debut single "Fall Into Love" premiered on Billboard.com on March 24 and became available on iTunes on March 31.[22]

On December 1, 2014, Fuse Literary announced Curtis had joined the company.[23] Curtis later backed this up by stating through his Twitter "suffice it to say, books are coming".[2] He has published two books so far, Boy Robot and its sequel, Robot Army.

2016: New Album 2nd Bit

Curtis announced through Twitter on new years he would be returning to music with his third studio album.[24] The songs within his new album, titled as "Super 8-bit Heart", are various remixes of songs found in his previous album "8-bit Heart". So far, the remixes haven't been identified by Curtis, or anyone else .

Discography
Simon Curtis discography
Studio albums3
Music videos1
EPs1
Singles16

Studio albums
Year Album
2010 8Bit Heart
  • First studio album
  • Released: March 23, 2010
  • Formats: Digital download
2011 RA
  • Second studio album
  • Released: June 7, 2011
  • Formats: Digital download
2013 WWW
  • Third studio album
  • Released: October 19, 2013
  • Formats: Digital download
2016 Super 8-Bit Heart

Extended plays
Year Album
2006 Alter Boy
  • First extended play
  • Released: 2006
  • Formats: Digital download
2015 Love, S
  • Second extended play
  • Released: 2015
  • Formats: Digital download

Singles
Year Title Album
2010 "Joystick" 8Bit Heart
"Diablo"
"8-Bit Heart"
"Beat Drop"
2011 "Delusional"
"Superhero" R∆
"Flesh"
2019 "Love" Ketamine
"Graduate"

Music videos
Year Title Album
2010 "8Bit Heart"
  • Released: May 10, 2010
 8Bit Heart

Soundtracks

Filmography
Film
Year Film Role Notes
2009Spectacular!Royce Du LacNickelodeon
Television series
Year Title Role Notes
2009Hannah MontanaTim"Once, Twice, Three Times Afraidy"
gollark: They literally added code to their drivers to make consumer cards' drivers not function in VMs, so that people would have to buy more expensive cards for no good reason.
gollark: Well, thanks to AMD being less evil, on Linux the drivers are just built into the kernel or something and work with basically no hassle.
gollark: Nvidia's drivers are worse. They try and push you into this "GeForce Experience" thing or something, work poorly on Linux, and deliberately don't work in VMs because Nvidia is Nvidia.
gollark: Better in what way?
gollark: nvidia bad because artificial market segmentation through drivers, poor linux support, and high pricing

References
  1. "Happy Birthday, Simon Curtis!". Just Jared Jr.. Retrieved March 29, 2013.
  2. "Simon Curtis on Twitter". Twitter.
  3. Billboard. Billboard Apr 2–9, 2011. Google Books. Retrieved March 28, 2013.
  4. Chris Azzopardi, "Simon Says", Between the Lines, November 17, 2011  – via HighBeam Research (subscription required) .
  5. SUNfiltered : Fresh culture daily. » Blog Archive » An interview with Simon Curtis Archived April 28, 2010[Date mismatch], at the Wayback Machine Sundance Channel – April 20, 2010.
  6. YouTube – Simon Curtis of SPECTACULAR!: Amazing Leukemia Speech! YouTube – February 15, 2009 – Retrieved April 22, 2010.
  7. Inspire magazine – Simon Curtis INSPIRE Magazine – May 30, 2009 – Retrieved April 22, 2010.
  8. Kristi Eaton, "Jenks native Simon Curtis tops the pop charts", Tulsa People, May 2010.
  9. Kelsy Lorin Taylor, "FCCLA Students Bring Joy to Young Patients", GTR Newspapers, February 1, 2010.
  10. Simon Curtis – Simon Curtis Pictures, Biography, Dating Pop Tower – Retrieved April 22, 2010.
  11. Jase Peeples (June 25, 2014). "Wrathschild: Out, Loud, and Never Going Back". Advocate.com.
  12. boy culture: Heartbeeps: A Review of 8Bit Heart by Simon Curtis boy culture – April 5, 2010 – Retrieved April 22, 2010.
  13. Kenneth Goh, "Sing Out Loud!", Teenage Magazine (Singapore), July 2009.
  14. Jason Lipshutz, "Simon Curtis' DIY Pop, Plus a Preview of His New Album", Billboard, March 14, 2011.
  15. "Superhero – Single by Simon Curtis". iTunes Store. Retrieved June 21, 2011.
  16. "Flesh – Single by Simon Curtis". iTunes Store. Retrieved June 21, 2011.
  17. "Flesh (Future Freestyle Remix) – Single by Simon Curtis". iTunes Store. Retrieved June 21, 2011.
  18. "R∆ by Simon Curtis". iTunes Store. Retrieved June 21, 2011.
  19. Ferguson, Wes (June 21, 2011). "Simon Curtis Drops the Beat From Nick Kid to Indie Music Superstar". Celebuzz. Retrieved June 21, 2011.
  20. Bradley Stern. "Simon Curtis, 'WWW' (Album Premiere)". MuuMuse.
  21. Sean Davis (October 11, 2013). "Simon Curtis Comes Out". The Quire.
  22. "Introducing Wrathschild". Popjustice. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
  23. "Alex R. Kahler on Twitter". Twitter.
  24. "Simon Curtis on Twitter".
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