Simon Alan Reeve was born on 21 July 1972 in Acton, West London. His father, Alan Reeve, was a teacher, and his mother, Cindy Reeve, was an occupational therapist who also worked in restaurants. He has a younger brother named James. He attended Twyford Church of England High School in Acton.

He left school with one GCSE, living on Income Support, and with mental health problems. At the age of 17, Reeve was a “whisker away” from suicide. He found himself standing on the edge of a bridge, unable to “face existence”, but something made him climb back. After leaving school, he took a series of jobs, including working in a supermarket, a jewellery shop and a charity shop. At the age of 18, he began work at The Sunday Times, initially as a post boy and then in the cuttings library, where he assisted a team of investigative journalists.

At the age of 21, Reeve was investigating the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. This eventually led to his first book, The New Jackals (1998), the first comprehensive account of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. After the attacks of 11 September 2001, Reeve became a media expert on terrorism. He eventually transitioned into making travel documentaries for the BBC.

Simon Reeve is married to Anya Reeve, a TV camera operator and campaigner, and they live in a converted barn on Dartmoor in Devon with their son and dogs.