Simon Ogden was born in 1956 in Bradford, England. He was a student in England during the late 1970s and early 1980s, graduating from Birmingham Polytechnic with a first class Honours degree in Sculpture and later graduating from the Royal College of Art with a Masters in Painting.

In 1983 Simon moved to Christchurch to take up a tenured position in the School of Fine Arts. Simon teaches Fine Arts in Painting and Sculpture and has a particular interest in the process of drawing as a basis for research.