Jeanmarie Simpson plays the starring role of Jeannette Rankin in the film A Single Woman.

Jeanmarie spent decades working in regional theatre and is Founding Artistic Director of the Nevada Shakespeare Company (NSC), based in Reno. In addition to the dozens of works she has directed for that company, Jeanmarie is remembered for her performances as Lady Macbeth, Gertrude in Hamlet, Elizabeth in Richard III, Goneril in King Lear, Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, Elsa in The Road to Mecca (directed by Tony Award winner Zakes Mokae), and Jeannette Rankin in A Single Woman, a play she also wrote and which ran Off-Broadway at The Culture Project in 2005. Also a celebrated singing actor, Jeanmarie has performed in a plethora of musical roles including Hope Harcourt and Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, Pitti- Sing and Katisha in The Mikado, Edith and Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance, The Countess in A Little Night Music, Anna in The King and I, Nancy in Oliver, Emma in Tintypes, Adelaide in Guys and Dolls, Julie in Showboat, Carrie in Carousel, Katherine in Kiss Me Kate and many others. In June of 2007, Jeanmarie appeared at Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills in the American premiere of the solo  piece, Shakespeare's Will, directed by Susan Bay Nimoy and produced by Leonard Nimoy.