The Best Nicola Coughlan Movies And TV Shows, Ranked

With the first half of "Bridgerton" Season 3 out and about, Nicola Coughlan is a bigger name than she's ever been. Her steady ascension to the show's forefront over time has endeared herself to longtime fans of the series and shown what an incredibly nuanced performer she is. As such, it wouldn't be surprising if viewers wanted to see her other work — and rightly so, because "Bridgerton" is far from Coughlan's first rodeo. In fact, the Irish performer has plenty of popular shows and movies in her acting CV, and viewers have greatly admired many of them. 

Still, not every project is created equal, and for prospective fans, it's important to find the greatest films and series to best showcase Coughlan's acting abilities. In order to help you on your mission to become acquainted with the actor's work outside "Bridgerton," Looper has compiled a fun list of her greatest live-action movies and TV shows, according to IMDb user ratings. 

One of Nicola Coughlan's newest victories is the British Channel 4 comedy-drama "Big Mood," in which she plays the main role of Maggie — a well-known writer who's dealing with both her bipolar disorder diagnosis and her day-to-day pressures. Boasting a 6.6 on IMDb, the series remains one of Coughlan's most respected projects.

The six-part "Big Mood" is written by Coughlan's friend Camilla Whitehill, who collaborated with Bipolar UK to ascertain that Maggie's mental health would be portrayed as accurately and inclusively as possible. In an interview with the Radio Times, Coughlan noted that she drifted into the project somewhat organically as opposed to the usual casting channels, but that's not to say she didn't find the part of Maggie enticing without a friendship connection to Whitehill — quite the contrary, in fact. "I've never played a character like this, and also just a fully grown adult woman," Coughlan described Maggie. "It was liberating to play her in lots of ways. She has a lot of confidence, she doesn't really care what people think, whereas I really do, and wish I did less."

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

Whether you rate it by its own merits or as part of the "Barbenheimer" box office glory, there's no denying that Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" is in the conversation for the biggest pop culture phenomenon of 2023. And Nicola Coughlan, who's first seen presenting the Barbie versions of Nobel prizes during the Barbieland introductory sequence, found herself part of that cultural juggernaut.

"Bridgerton" limited Coughlan's availability during the film's production, so while there were talks of her being a bigger part of the movie, her "Barbie" role ended up a minor one. As such, she was surprised to see how much she appeared in the promotional material. "I don't know what it would have been," she said in an interview with the Irish "The Late Late Show" (via Us Weekly). "But they were hoping for more time, but then they were like, 'Do you want to come and do, like, a cameo?' And I was like, 'Yes I obviously do.' I didn't know that I'd make the cut. I didn't know they'd put me on a poster. All that was very surprising to me."

On IMDb, "Barbie" currently sits at a 6.8.

"Bridgerton" is one of Netflix's bigger success stories in recent years, and Nicola Coughlan is an instrumental part of said success. Her role as Penelope Featherington – the secret author of the scandalous Lady Whistledown gossip pamphlet – in the Netflix hit period drama is as central as they come. The character's profile rises over the course of the series, and Coughlan is back on "Bridgerton" Season 3 as the romance between Penelope and Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) takes the center stage.

The actor, like many others, was aware of a particularly big romantic scene between the two in Julia Quinn's "Bridgerton" books, and when it became evident that Season 3 will finally feature said scene, she suddenly felt the pressure. "You just don't want to mess it up, you know?" Coughlan told USA Today. "But I just love that scene so much, because it's romantic. It's suspenseful. It's sexy. It's funny. It's heartfelt. You feel that true intimacy and connection between them."

With a 7.4 on IMDb, "Bridgerton" is easily one of the best, if not the best, projects on Coughlan's fantastic resume.

Nicola Coughlan's "Bridgerton" contract has a sex scene demand that requires the makers of the show to send her parents a PG version of the show. "I grew up Irish Catholic. That's just not how we vibe," she explained this in an interview with SiriusXM Hits 1 (via the The Independent). This may be understandable since Season 3 will bring her to the forefront of the show's romantic elements, but it's worth noting that "Bridgerton" isn't Coughlan's first major costume drama — and it might not even be the steamiest.

That honor goes to Hulu's "Harlots," on which Coughlan appears as the Season 2 recurring character Hannah Dalton. The show depicts the life and times of a 18th-century brothel ran by Margaret Wells (Samantha Morton), and as the premise suggests, Coughlan's role is very different from the comparatively demure Penelope. She plays a feisty character with plenty of scenes that are enough to make the viewer blush, so no matter how things play out on "Bridgerton," the Netflix show will have a hard time outdoing Hannah Dalton.

Over on IMDb, "Harlots," one of the best shows on Hulu, remains one of Coughlan's highest-rated shows, earning a rating of 7.7.

"Bridgerton" might be far and away Nicola Coughlan's best-known show, but it doesn't quite manage to top the list. That honor goes to "Derry Girls," the dark comedy show about a group of teens growing up in Northern Ireland during the 1990s. Coughlan plays the level-headed Clare Devlin, one of the more likable characters on "Derry Girls." With an emphatic 8.5 on IMDb, the series arguably serves as Coughlan's most respected project.

"Derry Girls" combines mundane slice-of-life stuff with a far more grim and grander backdrop of the Troubles. In a 2019 interview with Channel 4, Coughlan summed up the show's unassuming charms, while noting that she and fellow "Derry Girls" stars Saoirse-Monica Jackson and Jamie-Lee O'Donnell had personal experience on the way the series portrays the teenage experience.  

"I think a lot of shows about teenage girls get it wrong, because they make it all about boys, and the girls all look super-glamorous," she said. "I think Derry Girls is decidedly unglamorous. When I was at primary school, I went to an all-girls primary, as did Jamie-Lee and Saoirse. There's not time to be wondering if you're looking glamorous. And this is set in the 90s, it's a generation pre-social media, there's no Instagram, there's no fancy make-up or whatever. It's a very true reflection of what it's like to be a teenage girl, and it's joyous."