Madeleine Lucette Ryley (1858 - 1934)

Madeleine Lucette Ryley (26 December 1858 – 7 February 1934) was an English actress and playwright known for her plays in London and then America in the late 1800s. She began writing plays under the pseudonym Noel Grant until she gained fame as a dramatist. Ryley wrote 27 plays and directed many of them herself. She was an advocate for women's rights and was involved in the suffragist movement. Ryley rarely wrote suffragist drama for fear of trivializing complex political arguments.