She graduated from Huddersfield with a BA (Hons) Communications Art with French in 1992. Her first media role was at BBC Radio Merseyside before moving on to report on and read the sports news on BBC ‘North West Tonight’. In 2003 she became a sports reporter for BBC News, appearing on national bulletins, before becoming a sports news presenter on the BBC News Channel (known at the time as BBC News 24). In November 2011, Nugent began co-presenting BBC Breakfast on a 'relief' basis, filling in when regular hosts were unavailable. Since April 2012, she has presented sports bulletins alongside Mike Bushell on BBC ‘Breakfast’ and she is now the main relief presenter on the show.