Nicola Coughlan was 31 when she got her first big breakout role as Clare Devlin in Derry Girls. It was a long time coming for the actor who grew up in a village near Galway on Ireland’s west coast. Coughlan’s career really began to pick up in her 30s, as the lead in Big Mood, in a brief appearance in Barbie as ‘Diplomat Barbie’, and she will soon be guest-starring in one of the UK’s greatest television exports, Doctor Who. But of course, Coughlan’s biggest rise to fame has come from the Netflix show we all know and love — Bridgerton.
