English novelist, playwright, and actress whose successful prose romances, A Simple Story (1791) and Nature and Art (1796), are early examples of the novel of passion.

At 18 Simpson ran away to London to seek her fortune on the stage, married Joseph Inchbald, an actor, and played the provincial theatres with him. She continued to act after his death in 1779 and also began to adapt plays and write original farces and comedies, e.g., I'll Tell You What (1785). She was not a great actress but was greatly admired for her beauty and personality.