Age: 39
female
Nicola Mary Coughlan is an Irish actress. She is known for her roles as Clare Devlin in the Channel 4 sitcom Derry Girls and Penelope Featherington in the Netflix period drama Bridgerton. 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.
Going for a cast that veers somewhere between cannon and fannon, especially with updated concepts for characters as they developed later in the series. I also take liberties with the fact that we don't know how far back character's family origins go, so characters that may read as anglo-european in the original may be represented by actors of color. Consider, too, that this takes place early in the series, and characters like Morrigan, Leliana and Alistair age about 10 years as the series continues. This is the beginning of Origins. I also included potential casting for Maric and Fiona, potentially for flashbacks with Loghain and Duncan. <p> <p> I use the Amell character as the Warden in this in order to keep the cast tighter (and to lead into DA2), so no characters are considered new cast once the circle arch is reached. I also minimize other warden-contracted areas in order to keep the cast from getting too broad, focusing primarily on Ostagar, The Circle, Connor's story, The Landsmeet and the Arch Demon. Certain characters that originate from other starting areas but converge in the tower or Redcliff (like Dagna and Jowan) are included as well. I also cut characters that didn't necessarily age well or would be hard to respectfully represent, like Sandal.
