- Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing - German playwright and leader of the Enlightenment (1729-1781)
--1 is a kind of dramatist, playwright
- Lessing, Doris Lessing, Doris May Lessing - English author of novels and short stories who grew up in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) (born in 1919)
--2 is a kind of writer, author