# Nico Mirallegro
**Nico Mirallegro** (Nico Cristian Mirallegro, born 1991) is an English actor from [Greater Manchester](https://www.edgepedia.org/greater-manchester) who moved from soap opera stardom on *Hollyoaks* to critically acclaimed television drama, earning a BAFTA Television Award nomination for *The Village* and, in 2024, his first leading role in an international series as Stu in Paramount+'s *[Stags](https://www.edgepedia.org/stags-tv-series)*.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2813963/) • [2](https://manabouttown.tv/culture/interview-nico-mirallegro)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 1991, Manchester, Lancashire, England, to an Italian father and an Anglo-Irish mother[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2813963/) |
| Training | Three years at the Manchester School of Acting; introduced to acting in 2007 by his sister Claudia[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2813963/) • [3](https://cdnc.heyzine.com/files/uploaded/v3/8bfca291fae4dfbed46b55c54d7a0a729df27ce9.pdf) |
| Breakout role | Barry "Newt" Newton in the Channel 4 soap *Hollyoaks*, which he left in 2010[4](https://dailycity.co.uk/tech/nico-mirallegro-age-career-facts/) |
| BAFTA nomination | Nominated for a BAFTA Television Award in 2014 for playing Joe Middleton in *The Village*[5](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/nico-mirallegro/) |
| Leading role | Stu in *Stags*, Paramount+'s six-episode stag-holiday comedy-thriller released in August 2024[2](https://manabouttown.tv/culture/interview-nico-mirallegro) |
| Early recognition | Selected for Screen International's "Stars of Tomorrow" in 2012[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2813963/) |
| Acting award | Best Actor at the Gallio Film Festival for Mirko Pincelli's *The Habit of Beauty* (2016)[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2813963/) |
## Early life and training
Mirallegro was born in Manchester and grew up in Heywood, Greater Manchester.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2813963/) • [6](https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/nico-mirallegro-51984.php) His route into acting came through his sister Claudia, who in 2007 took him to an improvisation class at what is now the Manchester School of Acting; he has described himself as "a very, very nervous actor" at the start.[3](https://cdnc.heyzine.com/files/uploaded/v3/8bfca291fae4dfbed46b55c54d7a0a729df27ce9.pdf) He went on to train there for three years.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2813963/)
## Soap opera start and early screen work
His first screen role was Barry "Newt" Newton, an emo teenager, on the long-running [Channel 4](https://www.edgepedia.org/channel-4) soap *Hollyoaks*; he left the show in 2010 to pursue other projects, and his performance drew British Soap Award nominations for Best Newcomer and, shared with Marc Silcock, Best On-Screen Partnership.[4](https://dailycity.co.uk/tech/nico-mirallegro-age-career-facts/) • [6](https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/nico-mirallegro-51984.php) His film debut came in the 2009 short *Six Minutes of Freedom*, playing Chris, a troubled teenager training as a boxer while his father is in prison; the short won the Best New Wave Short Film award at the Yellow Fever Independent Film Festival.[6](https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/nico-mirallegro-51984.php)
After leaving the soap he moved through BBC anthology and drama work, including a bullied young gay character named Jamie in an episode of *Moving On* and a recurring role as exchange student Giovanni Mannasori in *Doctors*.[6](https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/nico-mirallegro-51984.php) In 2012 he was named one of Screen International's "Stars of Tomorrow," an industry list of emerging talent.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2813963/)
## Television drama and the BAFTA nomination
**The Village and My Mad Fat Diary.** Mirallegro played Joe Middleton in Peter Moffat's BBC drama *[The Village](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-village-2013-tv-series)*, a performance that earned him a BAFTA Television Award nomination in 2014.[5](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/nico-mirallegro/) In parallel he played Finn, the love interest of Rae Earl (Sharon Rooney), across all three series of E4's *[My Mad Fat Diary](https://www.edgepedia.org/my-mad-fat-diary)* from 2013 to 2015, a role that brought him a large teenage following.[7](https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/nico_mirallegro/) • [8](https://nicomirallegroitalia.wordpress.com/2015/04/11/nico-mirallegro-ero-un-po-una-seccatura-intervista-per-il-the-guardian/)
**Jimmy McGovern and prestige drama.** He played Johnjo O'Shea in [Jimmy McGovern](https://www.edgepedia.org/jimmy-mcgovern)'s single drama *Common* (2014) and [Timothy Evans](https://www.edgepedia.org/timothy-evans) in the BBC's three-part crime drama *Rillington Place* (2016), about the serial killer John Christie; Evans was wrongly executed for the murder of his wife Beryl, played by [Jodie Comer](https://www.edgepedia.org/jodie-comer).[6](https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/nico-mirallegro-51984.php) • [9](https://www.independenttalent.com/actors/nico-mirallegro/) Later television credits include *The Ark* (2015) as Kenan, *Penance*, *The Beast Must Die*, *We Hunt Together*, *Ridley*, *Spy/Master* as John Miller, and *Passenger* as Kane Jackson.[9](https://www.independenttalent.com/actors/nico-mirallegro/) • [4](https://dailycity.co.uk/tech/nico-mirallegro-age-career-facts/) He also filmed the title role of Franz, a young violin prodigy, in Alan Ball's HBO period pilot *Virtuoso*, set in 18th-century Vienna.[6](https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/nico-mirallegro-51984.php)
## Film work
Mirallegro's film roles include Dodge in the [Madchester](https://www.edgepedia.org/madchester) comedy *[Spike Island](https://www.edgepedia.org/spike-island-film)* (2012), David in *Anita B.* (2014), David Campbell in *Shooting for Socrates* (2014), Harry in *The Pass* (2016), and John Bagguley in [Mike Leigh](https://www.edgepedia.org/mike-leigh)'s *Peterloo* (2018).[10](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/nico_mirallegro) • [1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2813963/) *The Pass*, directed by Ben A. Williams, is his highest-rated film on Rotten Tomatoes at 89 percent, and he appeared in the original cast of the play at the Royal Court before the film.[10](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/nico_mirallegro) • [9](https://www.independenttalent.com/actors/nico-mirallegro/) For *The Habit of Beauty* (2016), directed by Mirko Pincelli, he won Best Actor at the Gallio Film Festival.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2813963/) He has described working with Mike Leigh on *Peterloo* as formative, a process that, in his words, helped strip away self-consciousness and taught him to speak up confidently.[2](https://manabouttown.tv/culture/interview-nico-mirallegro)
## Stags and recent work
In August 2024 Mirallegro took his most prominent role to date as Stu, the groom at the center of *Stags*, Paramount+'s six-part dark comedy in which a stag party abroad ends up in an island prison. Filming on location in the [Canary Islands](https://www.edgepedia.org/canary-islands) involved 5:30 am calls, dust, squibs, and explosions; he has said some crew compared the conditions to working on *Apocalypse Now*.[2](https://manabouttown.tv/culture/interview-nico-mirallegro) He has described Stu as a charming, likeable man carrying a hidden internal conflict and a sense of culpability that had to stay concealed from both the other characters and the audience.[2](https://manabouttown.tv/culture/interview-nico-mirallegro) In interviews around the release he named patience and trusting his intuition as the main challenge of his career, and cited directors Ali Abbasi, Lynne Ramsay, and [Alice Rohrwacher](https://www.edgepedia.org/alice-rohrwacher) as filmmakers whose worlds he would like to work in next.[2](https://manabouttown.tv/culture/interview-nico-mirallegro) • [11](https://therake.com/row/stories/rake-in-progress-nico-mirallegro-paramount-plus-stags)
## Radio and other work
Mirallegro has worked in BBC radio drama, playing Orpheus in an adaptation of *Orpheus and Eurydice*, for which he received a Best Actor nomination at the BBC Audio Drama Awards in 2016, with later roles including *79 Birthdays* and *Over Here, Over There* (both 2016).[6](https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/nico-mirallegro-51984.php) He is represented by The Artists Partnership.[12](https://linktr.ee/nicmirtap)
## References
1. [Nico Mirallegro, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2813963/)
2. ["How Am I Going To Play This Smiling Crocodile?": Nico Mirallegro On Leading Stags, Man About Town (August 16, 2024)](https://manabouttown.tv/culture/interview-nico-mirallegro)
3. [Nico Mirallegro: on becoming a Virtuoso, Streets magazine feature (PDF)](https://cdnc.heyzine.com/files/uploaded/v3/8bfca291fae4dfbed46b55c54d7a0a729df27ce9.pdf)
4. [Nico Mirallegro – Age, Height, Career, and Instagram Facts, Daily City](https://dailycity.co.uk/tech/nico-mirallegro-age-career-facts/)
5. [Nico Mirallegro, TV Insider](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/nico-mirallegro/)
6. [Nico Mirallegro Biography, The Famous People](https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/nico-mirallegro-51984.php)
7. [Nico Mirallegro, British Comedy Guide](https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/nico_mirallegro/)
8. [Nico Mirallegro: "Ero un po' una seccatura" – intervista per The Guardian (Italian translation), Nico Mirallegro Italia](https://nicomirallegroitalia.wordpress.com/2015/04/11/nico-mirallegro-ero-un-po-una-seccatura-intervista-per-il-the-guardian/)
9. [Nico Mirallegro, Independent Talent](https://www.independenttalent.com/actors/nico-mirallegro/)
10. [Nico Mirallegro Movies & TV Shows List, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/nico_mirallegro)
11. [Rake in Progress: Nico Mirallegro, The Rake (October 2024)](https://therake.com/row/stories/rake-in-progress-nico-mirallegro-paramount-plus-stags)
12. [Nico Mirallegro official Linktree](https://linktr.ee/nicmirtap)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screen actors of the Anglosphere and Europe › English actors: 2000s onward › Surnames Mc to M*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 12, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license