Nicola Coughlan stars in Big Mood

Big Mood. Yle Areena.

★★★

“Small an Irish actor.” Thus Nicola Coughlan describes himself on his Instagram profile. Coughlan is indeed Irish and only 155 centimeters tall, and he is known for his roles on television.

However, the description sounds modest considering that Coughlan is on the cover of the latest Time magazine, in which the magazine presents “the leaders of the next generation”.

Time has been selecting future trendsetters for ten years. The magazine justifies putting Coughlan on the list with the actor’s stubbornness and questioning of the status quo.

Coughlan has spoken on behalf of sexual and gender minorities and demanded British Prime Minister Keir Starmeria and the President of the United States Joe Bidenia “to stop exporting weapons to Israel”.

Coughlan is also current with, among other things, the comedy series he starred in Big Mood thanks to. It debuted in Britain in March and can now be found at Yle Areena.

Six-piece Big Mood is about playwright Maggie (Coughlan) and her best friend Eddie (Lydia West), who runs the bar he inherited from his father. Friends living in East London know each other better than anyone.

However, it is not always enough. Maggie’s bipolar disorder puts a strain on the relationship between the two, especially when she has stopped taking her medication and is swinging from mania to depression.

In the first episode, the character lives a mania phase. Maggie persuades Eddie to follow her to her former school, where she is scheduled to give a speech but where she primarily wants to punch her former teacher.

by Camilla Whitehill created by Big Mood parallel to the British series Fleabag (2016). Both dig comedy at the intersection of serious mental disorders and friendship.

Fleabag does it better, but also Big Mood to find humor in the shallows of life. Even the local abortion clinic is a pink nest of girl power, where the receptionist cheerfully asks: “Did you come to exercise your rights?”

Coughlan gets to show his range from euphoria to apathy in the series. Although he has already proven his ability in bigger productions.

Coughlan already known from the series Derry Girls (2018-2022) and Bridgerton (2020–), both of which can be found in the Netflix program.

A comedy that ran for three seasons Derry Girls is set in late 1990s Northern Ireland and a Catholic girls’ high school. Coughlan stars as Claire, who comes out of the closet while the conflict between Catholics and Protestants simmers in the background.

Also in Bridgerton hisses. In the third season of the epic drama set in 19th-century London, Penelope, played by Coughlan, becomes the main character. In a world where a woman’s value is measured in marriage shops, she is pursuing her own.

Especially of Bridgerton thanks to which Coughlan has become a big television star. The third season has been the series’ most watched – and Netflix’s sixth most watched series of all time.

However, Coughlan has not followed a straight line to the cover of Time magazine and to huge popularity.

“I’m just happy that I can work, because I couldn’t in my twenties,” he says In an interview with Time.

Coughlan got his first real role at the age of ten. He was Flashpoint-jännäri (1997) as a background actor. In his twenties, however, he mostly worked as a voice actor.

According to the Time interview, Coughlan left his home in Galway, Ireland, for London “three or four times” but had to return back when his acting career didn’t take off. He worked part-time in an optician’s shop.

In his thirties, Coughlan found himself short of money to move back in with their parents.

Year 2018 blew the bank. Coughlan made his theater debut at The Donmar Warehouse The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie -production in London’s famous West End, played a supporting role Harlots-TV series and one main role In Derry Girls. The following year there was an announcement about his role Bridgertonin the series.

Alongside the hit series Big Mood seems small – as it is on the scale of budget and visibility to Bridgerton in comparison, of course it is. However, it’s the first series where Coughlan is undeniably at center stage from the start.

Hindsight it doesn’t help to guess why, out of many talented actors, it was Coughlan who had a big success in his career and why exactly in his thirties. She comes from the edge of Europe, she couldn’t have chosen a modeling career, and some of her opinions divide opinion.

However, a good story can be helpful for a star. Coughlan can tell about hard work, years of trying and uncompromising. He can emphasize that he is a “little Irish actor” in the big world of entertainment.

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