
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.

Nicola Coughlan

Dorothy Grill
for Dorothy Grill in The Museum Mysteries
Suggested by devahutiraichaliha

Jim Eldridge’s Museum (Murder) Mysteries is an historical crime-fiction series set in late-Victorian London, featuring Daniel Wilson, a former detective from the Metropolitan Police, and his partner, archaeologist Abigail Fenton. Each novel centres on a murder tied to a famous British museum or institution—such as the British Museum, the Natural History Museum, or the National Gallery—where the pair are called in as private inquiry agents to solve crimes that baffle the authorities. The series blends classic whodunnit structure with richly researched historical settings, highlighting scientific rivalries, class tensions, and the early professionalisation of museum culture. Across the series, the cases often expose the hidden politics of Victorian scholarship, including disputes over archaeological finds, forgeries, colonial acquisitions, and the ambitions of curators eager to protect their reputations. Wilson brings methodical investigative skills and quiet moral conviction, while Fenton offers academic expertise, courage, and a knack for noticing overlooked details—making them equal partners in unpicking the murders. Their developing relationship threads through the books, adding warmth and emotional continuity amid the atmosphere of intrigue.