Natalie Simpkins is an award-winning British writer and director who is passionate about telling stories that support and share underrepresented voices. She serves on the board for the Alliance of Women Directors and is a Blackmagic Collective Next Level Fellow.

Natalie founded and is Creative Director of brand agency 19Creative where she directs for international commercial brands including, most recently, filming spots for Nike in London and Paris. She wrote and is attached to direct the feature film, The Token Groomsman, which is the highest rated romcom on the script scoring platform, Slated. The feature will star Taylor Lautner, Sarah Hyland, Andie MacDowell and Brenton Thwaites, and is being co-produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way and Retinue Media.

Natalie has directed five award-winning short films including Father’s Day Breakfast, about a young boy growing up with deaf parents in the 1960s, which screened at numerous International Academy Award Qualifying festivals and won awards for her cast including Academy-Award winner Troy Kotsur.

Following completion of her BA/MA in Literature at the University of Cambridge, Natalie moved to LA intent on sharing her joy in storytelling. Pursuing strong female leadership, she worked for Laura Ziskin at Sony on films such as Lee Daniels’ The Butler and The Amazing Spider-Man. She then worked for Madonna’s music company Izo, where she was part of the team that won the YouTube Streamy award for most viral online content with Silento’s Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae).

Natalie was a 2022 fellow for the AWD Directing the Actor initiative and the Blackmagic Future Directors of Studio Features Initiative. As part of these initiatives, Natalie receives guidance from industry professionals including AWD founder, Jennifer Warren along with directors Jane Campion and Catherine Hardwicke.

Natalie is based in Los Angeles and is legally represented by Danny Passman at Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman.