[2][3][4] Her television credits include Beverly Hills, 90210, Mad About You, Saturday Night Live, Arrested Development, Suddenly Susan, and Ellen.

Semple attended boarding school at Choate Rosemary Hall, then received a BA in English from Barnard College in 1986.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette is about an agoraphobic architect, mother, and wife who is struggling to adjust to life in Seattle and goes missing just before a family trip to Antarctica.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette spent a year on the New York Times bestseller list,[6] won the American Library Association's Alex Award,[7] and was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction.

In 2007, a newly discovered species of moss frogs from Sri Lanka was named Philautus poppiae after their daughter, a tribute to Meyer's and Semple's dedication to the Global Amphibian Assessment.