Nicola Coughlan

Nicola Mary Coughlan (/ˈkɒxlən/; born 9 January 1987) is an Irish actress. She is known for her roles as Clare Devlin in Channel 4's sitcom Derry Girls (2018–2022) and Penelope Featherington in Netflix's Bridgerton (2020–present). She earned a Screen Actors Guild Awards nomination for playing the lead role of Penelope Featherington in the third season of Bridgerton. Coughlan earned a British Academy Television Awards nomination for her role as Maggie Donovan in Big Mood (2024–present).
Coughlan was born on 9 January 1987 in Galway, Ireland, and grew up in Oranmore. The youngest of three siblings, her father served in the Irish Army before passing away in 2016, and her mother was a stay-at-home parent.
At the age of five, while watching her sister perform in a school play, Coughlan decided she wanted to become an actress. She attended Scoil Mhuire Primary School and Calasanctius College. She graduated with a degree in English and Classical Civilisation from the National University of Ireland, Galway. She then went on to train in England at the Oxford School of Drama and Birmingham School of Acting.
In 1997, at the age of 9, Coughlan had an uncredited role in the action thriller film My Brother's War. In 2004, she started her career with a role in Tom Collins' short film The Phantom Cnut, a revenge comedy. In the following years, Coughlan did voice work in animated series and films, including The Fairytales from 2004 to 2005, Summer of the Flying Saucer in 2008, Simsala Grimm II: The Adventures of Yoyo and Doc Croc in 2010, Thor: Legend of the Magical Hammer in 2011, and Ivan the Incredible in 2012. She made brief appearances in the soap opera Doctors in 2012 and the musical comedy film Svengali in 2013.
After drama school, Coughlan moved to London three times in four years, and each time was forced to move back home with her parents in Ireland due to financial difficulties. She suffered from depression during this period, and received help from her family. She worked part-time at an optician in Galway, and later responded to an open casting call for Jess and Joe Forever at The Old Vic in London, winning the main role of Jess. Her first performance was in September 2016, prior to a national tour.
In 2018, Coughlan began playing Clare Devlin, one of the main characters in Derry Girls, a sitcom set in Derry, Northern Ireland, in the 1990s. Coughlan has said that her Northern Irish accent was inspired by Girls Aloud's Nadine Coyle. Derry Girls is Channel 4's most successful comedy since Father Ted, and the most watched show in Northern Ireland since modern records began in 2002. In July 2018, the cast appeared on challenge game show Crystal Maze. In December 2018, Coughlan competed against some of her Derry Girls co-stars in an episode of The Great British Bake Off.
Though Derry Girls was broadcast in January and February 2018 on Channel 4, it was after its rerelease onto Netflix in December that same year that the show gained international audience and popularity. The third and last series aired from 12 April 2022 to 18 May 2022 on Channel 4, and was released on Netflix on 7 October 2022. Derry Girls has received nominations at the British Academy Television Awards, winning Best Scripted Comedy in 2023, Irish Film and Television Awards, including winning Best Comedy in 2018.
Coughlan played Hannah Dalton in Harlots, a period drama television series set in 18th-century London. 2018 marked her West End debut in The Donmar Warehouse's production of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. In September, the Evening Standard named her "one of the Rising Stars of 2018". Coughlan has stated that she auditioned for the part of Robin Buckley in season 3 of Stranger Things, but did not get the part.
In 2019, it was announced that Coughlan had been cast in the Netflix series Bridgerton, which premiered in December 2020. Coughlan played Penelope Featherington, a reluctant debutante and youngest daughter of a nouveau-riche family in Regency era London. Coughlan's role was significantly cut back in the third series of Derry Girls in 2022 due to scheduling conflicts with Bridgerton and the coronavirus pandemic. The third season of Bridgerton focused on Coughlan's character's love story with Luke Newton's Colin Bridgerton. For her lead role as Penelope Featherington in the third season of Bridgerton, Coughlan received a Screen Actors Guild Awards nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series, and a second nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series, having received a nomination for the first season of Bridgerton. Coughlan also received an IFTA Film & Drama Awards nomination for Lead Actress in a Drama. Coughlan is confirmed to return for the fourth season of Bridgerton.
In June and July 2021, Coughlan was nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Drama for Bridgerton, and nominated and won Rising Star Award at the IFTA Film & Drama Awards. In November 2021, The Hollywood Reporter included Coughlan in its Next Gen Talent 2021: The Hollywood Reporter's Rising Young Stars.
In November 2022, Coughlan was honoured with Glamour's Women of the Year TV Actor Awards.
In February 2023, Coughlan was awarded Best Newcomer at the Newport Beach Film Festival UK Honours. In July 2023, Coughlan made a brief appearance in Barbie as Diplomat Barbie, later citing filming clashes for the short time she was in the film. She voiced the Playroom Fairy in Apple TV+ Christmas special The Velveteen Rabbit, based on the children's book of the same name. Coughlan portrayed Queen Victoria in the 2023 Dodger Christmas special on BBC One and CBBC.
Coughlan starred alongside Lydia West in Channel 4 sitcom Big Mood, a six-part dramedy series about two best friends navigating friendship amidst a mental health crisis. Big Mood was Channel 4's most-watched new comedy launch since Derry Girls, and Coughlan received praise for her role as Maggie Donovan. Coughlan received her first British Academy Television Awards nomination for Best Female Performance in a Comedy. She also won Best Comedy Performance at the TV Choice Awards 2025. A second season of Big Mood was confirmed in February 2025.
Coughlan then starred as Humble Joan alongside Aimee Lou Wood and Lolly Adefope in Seize Them!, a 2024 comedy film set in the Dark Ages. In December 2024, Coughlan played the title role in the 2024 Doctor Who Christmas special, "Joy to the World", written by Steven Moffat, alongside Barbie co-star Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor.
In October 2024, Coughlan was named in Time 100 Next's 2024. She was also named in Variety's 2024 Power Women of Hollywood. Coughlan was the cover of Time's 28 October 2024 issue, having been named as one of Time's Next Generation Leaders. Vanity Fair and TV Insider praised her performance as Penelope Featherington in Bridgerton and Maggie Donovan in Big Mood as one of the 24 best performances of 2024. She was IMDb's second Most Popular Breakout Star of 2024, and seventh Most Popular Star of 2024. She was also named as one of the best-dressed women of 2024 by Harper's Bazaar UK.
Coughlan was named in Elle's "40 for 40: The Women In Film And Television Power List," which lists women that will shape what - and how - you watch for decades to come. The Independent named Coughlan in its “Independent Women 2025 - The Influence List,” which listed 50 of the most influential women in the UK. Coughlan will be honoured with the Konbini Commitment Award, which recognizes a talent or a series that has distinguished itself by the artistic quality and the societal, innovative or revolutionary dimension of its work, at the 8th Cannes International Series Festival (Canneseries) (April 24 - 29, 2025).
Coughlan will play the role of Silky in the upcoming adaptation of Enid Blyton's The Magic Faraway Tree, alongside Andrew Garfield, Claire Foy and Rebecca Ferguson. She will also have a starring role in the upcoming feature drama-thriller, Love and War, about a woman who must travel to Syria to find her abducted daughter.
Coughlan has narrated several audiobooks, including Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, Big Girl, Small Town (abridged) by Michelle Gallen, The Temple House Vanishing by Rachel Donohue, Listening Still by Anne Griffin, Aren't We Lucky by Sarah Forbes Stewart, and an Audible Original, Misdirected by Lucy Parker, alongside Gwilym Lee. In November 2022, she appeared in a Sam Mendes produced Audible audio adaptation of Oliver Twist. Coughlan has also narrated Juno Dawson's His Majesty's Royal Coven, The Shadow Cabinet, and Queen B. She also narrated a chapter of Meet the Georgians: Epic Tales from Britain's Wildest Century by Robert Peal alongside Bridgerton co-star Adjoah Andoh, and she appeared in a cameo role as Countess Christiana in That Friend by Sabrina Brier.
Coughlan has also narrated podcasts. In 2020, she starred alongside Hannah Bristow in audio play podcast series, A Passion Play, about two teenagers' first love colliding with Christ's crucifixion. In 2021, along with Big Mood creator and writer, Camilla Whitehill, Coughlan co-created, co-wrote and starred in Whistle Through the Shamrocks, a six-episode scripted comedy podcast with a star-studded cast, including Ben Miller, Louisa Harland, Stephanie Beatriz and Jonathan Van Ness. Coughlan also presented History's Youngest Heroes, a twelve-episode history podcast focusing on the stories of twelve extraordinary people from across history, on BBC Radio 4.
In March 2022, Coughlan became the muse and face of Pat McGrath Labs x Bridgerton II make-up collection. Per McGrath: “Brave, bold and beautiful, Nicola embodies inspirational individuality, sophisticated strength and an independent spirit – I can truly say she is the Belle of the Ball!”
In October 2023, Coughlan partnered with Uber Eats Australia for its campaign to help address period poverty.
In June 2024, Coughlan starred in Skims' latest campaign for the brand's Soft Lounge Collection. In August 2024, Coughlan starred in Kate Spade's Fall Campaign, alongside Taraji P. Henson and Marsai Martin.
In February 2025, Coughlan starred in Neutrogena's ‘Main Character Energy’ campaign. In April 2025, Coughlan featured in Olaplex's ‘Designed to Defy’ campaign, alongside Jenna Lyons and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.
Nicola Coughlan has been often recognised for her youthful looks. In January 2018, upon the airing of the first episodes of Derry Girls, social media became inundated with comments expressing shock at the then-31-year-old having been cast as a 16-year-old character. In April 2024, when aged 37 years, more such commentary appeared. Coughlan shared that she found the discourse about her age "funny"; she has never hidden her age, despite having been advised to do so. Coughlan shared that, prior to booking Derry Girls in her late 20s, some casting directors had refused to see her because she was "too old."
In October 2017, in a now-deleted tweet, Coughlan shared that she had been teen-aged when she was told by an "older, respected director" that if she wanted to impress him in an acting competition, she should perform naked. Coughlan elaborated: "I was a kid, but no woman of any age should be spoken to that way by a man in a position of power, ever. Trust me, I have a lot worse stories than that."
In 2018, while Coughlan was appearing on stage in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie at London's Donmar Warehouse, she wrote a piece for the Guardian calling out the unfair scrutiny of women's bodies common in theatre criticism. The following year, she made headlines again for rebutting the Daily Mirror's comment on her 2019 British Academy Television Awards look: "Not the most flattering". She tweeted "I mean incorrect @DailyMirror I look smokin’, sorry bout it". Following the 2021 Golden Globe Awards, she challenged other comments about her weight on Twitter.
In June 2024, Coughlan cheekily responded to a comment calling her "very brave" for her intimacy scenes in season 3 of Bridgerton by stating: "You know, it is hard, because I think women with my body type — women with perfect breasts — we don't get to see ourselves on screen enough. I'm very proud as a member of the perfect breasts community. I hope you enjoy seeing them." In the same month, Coughlan rebuffed claims by Internet trolls that Bridgerton photoshopped her waist, clarifying, “If you wear corsetry for long enough, your body really molds to it."
In February 2019, 28 women with their suitcases led by Coughlan crossed London's Westminster Bridge to demand the decriminalization of abortion in Northern Ireland. They represented the estimated number of women a week who had to travel to England to access abortion.
On 26 June 2020, Coughlan and her fellow Derry Girls co-stars performed a sketch with Saoirse Ronan for the RTÉ fundraising special RTÉ Does Comic Relief. The night's proceeds went to those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Coughlan is an ambassador for LauraLynn Ireland's Children's Hospice, which provides specialist palliative and supportive care services. In July 2020, she auctioned off an Alex Perry dress and raised €5,000 for the hospice. In May 2022, Couglan auctioned off her Season 3 Derry Girls Wrap Jacket and raised €22,197. In December 2022, she auctioned off her Season 2 Bridgerton wrap bag, signed by herself and some other Bridgerton stars, raising €23,721 for LauraLynn.
On 12 April 2022 upon the release of the third series of Derry Girls, Coughlan protested the attempted privatisation of Channel 4, posting a picture of herself holding up a middle finger on Instagram and linking to a change.org petition.
On 28 June 2024, Coughlan collaborated with DJ and record producer Ellis Miah to release "Shoes...More Shoes", with profits from the song being donated to two charities, Not A Phase and The Trevor Project, in celebration of Pride Month.
Coughlan was one of over two thousand to sign an Artists for Palestine letter calling for a ceasefire and accusing Western governments of "not only tolerating war crimes but aiding and abetting them." In July 2024, Coughlan raised over $2 million for Urgent Gaza Relief and Recovery, a campaign organized by Palestine Children's Relief Fund to address urgent humanitarian needs and support long-term recovery efforts in Gaza Strip. On 9 October, 2024, in her speech as a TIME100 Next honoree, Coughlan called for the U.S. and UK to “stop sending arms to Israel, to release the hostages, [and] to send aid into Gaza.”
In December 2024, Coughlan partnered up with HURR and Choose Love to rent out a selection of her wardrobe, with proceeds going to Choose Love, a UK-based charity supporting refugees and displaced people all over the world.