NEXT GENERATION LEADERS

11 trailblazers who are challenging the status quo, leading with empathy, and forging solutions for a brighter future

IRELAND

NICOLA COUGHLAN

Galway girl who bet on herself and won

BY OLIVIA-ANNE CLEARY

THERE WAS A MOMENT DURING THE Bridgerton press tour earlier this year when Nicola Coughlan forgot where she was. Looking at the food on the plate in front of her, she thought she might be in Italy. She was, in fact, in an Italian restaurant in Brazil. The global tour, during which she visited seven countries over six months, had started to take its toll. The journey marked the end of the Netflix phenomenon's third season, in which the actor took center stage as Penelope Featherington. Coughlan's season would go on to become the sixth most watched season of TV in Netflix's history, beating out The Night Agent and installments of Stranger Things.

When we meet for breakfast in North London on a sunny September morning, she's in between filming the show's fourth season and flying out to Los Angeles to present at the Emmys. Low-key in damp hair, a baseball cap, and sweatshirt, she's reflecting on the upside of all this: it means she's employed. "I just feel really lucky to be working, because all of my 20s, I wasn't," she says. Coughlan, now 37, can be unassuming. Yet she's confident and bold in her approach to the industry and her newfound status in the public eye.