Umberto Simonetta (4 April 1926 – 25 August 1998) was an Italian playwright, writer and lyricist.

[1] Born in Milan, Simonetta grew up in Switzerland where his father had been forced to move as an anti-fascist.

[1] He started his career working in couple with Guglielmo Zucconi as a radio writer and a playwright.

[1][2] He wrote several novels, some of them adapted into films such as Normal Young Man by Dino Risi and I viaggiatori della sera by Ugo Tognazzi.

[1][2] In his later years Simonetta collaborated with the newspaper Il Giornale as a theatrical critic and was one of the screenwriters of the sitcom Nonno Felice.