Nicola Sian Thorp (born 30 September 1988) is an English former actress, broadcaster, columnist, and activist. She is known for her role as Nicola Rubinstein in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street (2017–2019), as well as her contributions to the newspaper Metro and the programmes This Morning and The Talk.

Early life
Thorp was born in Blackpool. Her family run a Blackpool rock factory founded by her grandfather in 1962.

Thorp attended Arnold School, where she served as deputy head girl. She studied acting at the Arts Educational School (ArtsEd) in London from 2007 to 2010.

Career
In 2018, Thorp competed for ITV in Sport Relief'''s "Clash of the Channels" boat race, and started writing a regular column for freesheet Metro.co.uk, her first focusing on period poverty for women. Since 2019, Thorp has also been a regular contributor for This Morning.

Coronation Street
Thorp began appearing in Coronation Street as Nicola Rubinstein on 12 June 2017 as street villain Pat Phelan's (Connor McIntyre) daughter. Thorp's last appearance as Nicola Rubinstein was on 13 June 2018 at the conclusion of her storyline. On 11 November 2018, it was announced that Thorp would be reprising her role as Nicola, and she returned from 21 January to 1 February 2019.

Music career

In 2018, Thorp joined 26 other celebrities at Metropolis Studios, to perform an original Christmas song called Rock With Rudolph, written and produced by Grahame and Jack Corbyn. The song was recorded in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital, and was released digitally through independent record label Saga Entertainment on 30 November 2018 under the artist name The Celebs. The music video debuted exclusively with The Sun newspaper online on 29 November 2018, and had its first TV showing on Good Morning Britain on 30 November 2018. The song peaked at number two on the iTunes pop chart.

Heels campaign
Thorp made headlines in 2016 after going public about an experience she had at PricewaterhouseCoopers as a temp worker: she was sacked as a temp receptionist in London after refusing to wear high heels, something mandated by her agency's "female grooming" policies at the time. An online petition that she started to highlight the situation was subsequently signed by nearly 110,000 people in less than 48 hours. The petition gained support from the media and members of parliament including Margot James, Caroline Dinenage ,and Tulip Siddiq. Thorp appeared on Good Morning Britain to talk about her petition and clashed with host Piers Morgan.

Thorp later appeared in front of a Parliamentary select committee to discuss the issue, and wrote articles in newspapers laying out her stance that she is not anti-high heels, but merely that it should not be necessary for certain jobs. As a result, the temp agency Portico changed its rules.

Personal life
In a 2018 interview with Emma Barnett on Radio 5 Live, Thorp admitted to having been so depressed that it had led to a nervous breakdown six years before. She has also revealed that she had been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.

As of 2018, Thorp lived on a canal boat, which she would regularly move to different moorings while using her parents' postal address. Thorp supported and campaigned for the Labour Party in the run-up to the 2019 general election, believing a Labour government would revitalise seaside towns such as Blackpool.

Thorp is engaged to actor Nikesh Patel, having been in a relationship since 2021. The couple took part in series five of Celebrity Hunted'' in 2023.

In 2020, Thorp called the actor Laurence Fox a racist. To teach her a lesson, Fox promptly responded by labelling her a paedophile, to demonstrate just how irritating it is when false accusations are made against you.  Nicola responded by suing Fox for defamation.  In August 2023, the Court of Appeal dismissed her claim, noting that the ordinary reasonable reader would have completely understood the non-defamatory lesson that Fox was trying to teach Thorp. Fox's defamation claim against Nicola Thorp remains ongoing.

Filmography

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Thorp discussing auditioning problems

1988 births
21st-century English actresses
Actresses from Lancashire
English actresses
English soap opera actresses
English television actresses
Labour Party (UK) people
Living people
People educated at the Arts Educational Schools
Actors from Blackpool
People with borderline personality disorder
Television personalities from Lancashire
21st-century English women
21st-century English people
PricewaterhouseCoopers people
People associated with canals
Participants in British reality television series