“In 2017, I was working part time in an optician's, about to turn 30, living at home with my parents, unsure whether the whole 'acting thing' was ever going to happen or whether I was completely kidding myself.”

Irish actress

Nicola Coughlan is an Irish actress, best known for playing Clare Devlin in the Channel 4 sitcom Derry Girls and Penelope Featherington in Netflix’s Bridgerton. Her screen work has made her a familiar presence in contemporary television. She became widely known through Derry Girls, which ran from 2018 to 2022, and has continued to appear in Bridgerton since 2020. For that role, she received a Screen Actors Guild Awards nomination for the third series. She also earned a British Academy Television Award nomination for playing Maggie Donovan in Big Mood, which began in 2024.