Lady Whistledown can’t believe the news!
On Wednesday, January 8, Nicola Coughlan received her first solo Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for playing Penelope Featherington in Bridgerton. The cast received recognition in 2021 for outstanding ensemble performance in a drama series, which they picked up this year as well.
“This is a very nice early birthday present!” Coughlan – who turns 38 on Thursday, January 9 – wrote on Instagram on January 8 about her outstanding performance as an actress in the drama series nomination. “Absolutely shocked and so honoured, thank you @sagawards and so proud of the whole @bridgertonnetflix family 🩵🩵🩵🩵🩵”
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Kathy Bates (Matlock), Allison Janney (Diplomat), Keri Russell (Diplomat) and Anna Sawai (Shogun) she also received a nomination in SAG’s Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Drama Series category.
Sawai, 32, took home a Golden Globe for her role in the Hulu series on Sunday, Jan. 5, making her the second actress to win the award for her role as Mariko in Shogun; the late Yoko Shimada did so in 1981, making her the first Asian actress to win a Golden Globe.
The third season Bridgerton followed Penelope as she fell in love with and married Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton). It also saw Penelope rekindle her friendship with Eloise Bridgerton (Claudia Jessie) and be exposed as Lady Whistledown’s society gossip, which Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) surprisingly accepts.
Luke Newton as Colin Bridgerton and Nicola Coughlan as Penelope Featherington in the third season of ‘Bridgerton’.
Courtesy of Netflix
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Coughlan described the season to PEOPLE as “so romantic.”
“There were a lot of moments on set where we were shooting something and we’d turn around and everyone would be holding their chests going ‘Oh my God,'” she said in June 2023. “It was such a love.”
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Luke Newton and Nicola Coughlan at the Italian premiere of the third season of ‘Bridgerton’ on May 8, 2024 in Milan.
Elena Di Vincenzo/Archivio Elena Di Vincenzo/Mondadori Portfolio/Getty
While rumors swirled of a possible off-screen romance between Coughlan and Newton, 31, the Irish star was seen hanging out with actor Jake Dunn in October. They have been connected since August 2024.
Coughlan described what she has with Newton as a “wonderful friendship”. TIME. “We have such love for each other and this experience that I will never have with anyone else,” she said. “Isn’t it wonderful that a man and a woman can have such a relationship with each other?”
Bridgerton Season 4 cast: All about the new (and returning) stars joining the show — and where you’ve seen them before!
4th season Bridgerton will follow Benedict Bridgeton (Luke Thompson) as he searches for love in the high society of London during the Regency era. Coughlan and her co-star Jonathan Bailey will return for Season 4, while new faces Yerin Ha and Katie Leung will join the hit Netflix series based on the Julia Quinn book series. Ha will play Sophie, Benedict’s love interest.
In September 2024, Thompson teased the new season, telling Tudum that it explores “the struggle between a real old-fashioned fairy tale — its romance — and the real world reality.”
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Seasons 1-3 of Bridgerton currently streaming on Netflix.
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Source: HIS Education