“In the beginning, when 'Derry Girls' came out, it was a success very quickly which was amazing but I was terrified to go to events and dress up. I just thought, 'oh god, you're going to be so judged,' so I threw on whatever from my wardrobe but I never felt fully confident.”

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.