Bridgerton's Penelope Featherington Age vs the Actress' Age in Real Life

Even though Nicola Coughlan does not play one of the Bridgerton siblings on the hit Netflix show, she has long proven to be one of its most prominent and fan-favorite cast members, and it's impossible to imagine any other actress portraying the sweet and quick-witted Penelope Featherington.

But, as it turns out, the show's creators had to make concessions when casting the Irish actress because Coughlan's character is actually much younger than her.

While Bridgerton doesn't directly say how old Penelope is, we can look at Julia Quinn's original book series and see what clues the show gives to calculate her age. According to the fourth book in Quinn's series, Pen made her social debut in 1813 (Season 1 of the Netflix show).

'On the tenth of April, in the year 1813 — precisely two days after her seventeenth birthday, Penelope Featherington made her debut into London society,' Romancing Mister Bridgerton reads.

From these words, we can draw two conclusions. First, the book's Penelope was born on April 8, 1796, and second, the debut age for women in Quinn's series was 17.

However, Netflix's adaptation has changed that, along with Penelope's age.

Judging by the debuts of Daphne and Eloise, who both sat out a year and were presented to the Queen at the age of 19, Shondaland's debutantes are usually 18, and that's also the age at which Coughlan's Penelope was presented to society in Season 1. That means she is a year older than her book counterpart and will be 20 by Season 3, which is set in the 1815 social season and focuses on the love story of Penelope and Colin Bridgerton.

That makes Nicola Coughlan, who turned 37 in January, 17 years older than her character. Obviously, the actress doesn't look her age, and in fact, the role of Penelope is not the first time she has played someone much younger than herself. At the age of 31, Coughlan was cast as 16-year-old Clare Devlin in the popular Channel 4 sitcom Derry Girls.

According to the New York Times, the actress' age was never an issue for Bridgerton's creators. As soon as Chris Van Dusen saw Nicola's audition tape for the role of Eloise Bridgerton, he knew they had their perfect Penelope Featherington.

'I called all of our other producers into the room and showed them the tape,' the Bridgerton creator recalled. 'I'm happy to say that everyone loved her as much as I did.'

Ahead of the third season's yet-to-be-announced premiere, fans couldn't agree more with Van Dusen. It seems that no one could have played Pen better than Coughlan, and the show's huge fandom can't wait to see her finally find happiness on screen in Season 3.

Source: The New York Times.