Background
Simpson was born to parents in the entertainment industry. Her mother, Diane Whitley, had spent several years as an actress and was encouraged to go into writing through her playwright husband Dave Simpson.
Simpson was born to parents in the entertainment industry. Her mother, Diane Whitley, had spent several years as an actress and was encouraged to go into writing through her playwright husband Dave Simpson.
Simpson graduated from Leeds University in 2004 with an arts degree in Creative Writing.
Simpson"s first acting role came in a radio adaptation of The Little Princess in 1997. Spoonface Steinberg In 1997, she was offered the role of Spoonface Steinberg in a 60-minute monologue for British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4. The play was written by Lee Hall (who went on to write Billy Elliot) and was about a young Jewish autistic girl dying of cancer.
Spoonface Steinberg provided important exposure for Simpson, leading to her first television role in See How They Run – a six-part CBBC series about a family on the run from gangsters.
The series was part-filmed in London and Australia and featured Neighbours star Peter O"Brien. Further roles Simpson"s exposure in Spoonface Steinberg led to further television roles in Doctors, Always and Everyone and Peak Practice.
She also played Puck in a radio adaptation of William Shakespeare"s A Midsummer Night"s Dream, starring alongside Richard Griffiths. In other roles she appeared with future Doctor Who star Christopher Eccleston in Pig"s Paradise and Ricky Tomlinson in The Virgin of Liverpool.
Her most recent television role was in Peak Practice.