{"id":441799,"date":"2026-05-10T13:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T13:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/441799\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T13:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T13:58:10","slug":"youghal-fair-city-star-landed-dream-actress-job-after-being-made-redundant-as-data-scientist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/441799\/","title":{"rendered":"Youghal Fair City star landed dream actress job – after being made redundant as data scientist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nancy Collins took it as a sign to pursue her first love – acting<\/p>\n

10:23, 10 May 2026Updated 10:28, 10 May 2026<\/p>\n

\"Nancy<\/p>\n

Nancy Collins (right) who plays Carrigstowns newest arrival S\u00edofra(Image: Fair City Photography | Shot by Square in Square)<\/p>\n

Fair City star Nancy Collins has landed her dream job as an actress – after working as a data scientist.<\/p>\n

Nancy, who plays Carrigstown’s newest arrival Siofra, was made redundant from her job last December and took it as a sign to pursue her first love, acting<\/a>. She always dreamed of working in the industry, but opted for a “safe job” after speaking with a guidance counsellor in school. Nancy told RSVP Live<\/a>: “I grew up doing community theatre from a very young age in Youghal, Cork, where I’m from.<\/p>\n

“From when I could speak I always wanted to be an actor, but it didn’t seem achievable and I grew out of love with it. I studied marketing in DIT for four years and hated it. I thought I would go into tech, so did a computer science conversion masters in UCC.<\/p>\n

“I actually worked as a data scientist for the last five years. I moved up to Dublin and thought to myself it was my chance to do my Plan A, because I still wanted to be an actor. I did a part-time course in the Bow Street Academy and did a few short films, two feature films and got myself an agent.”<\/p>\n

Nancy was made redundant from data science late last year and took it as a “sign”. She said: “I remember ages ago hearing that Margot Robbie got her start in Neighbours by emailing them.<\/p>\n

“So I just Googled the casting director in Fair City<\/a> and emailed them. At the same time, my agent was putting me forward for this role, so it’s like we attacked them from both angles.”<\/p>\n

Nancy, whose debut scenes as barista Siofra aired on Friday night, said her experience of filming so far has been “amazing” and it “still hasn’t sunk in”.<\/p>\n

She added: “Everyone has been so nice, so relaxed and so welcoming. Obviously everyone is really professional and we get things done, but I didn’t expect it to be so much fun.”<\/p>\n

As for what viewers can expect from her character, Nancy said: “Siofra is a very motivated, career-driven woman with a background in tech.<\/p>\n

“She has been struggling in the tech world and was promised a dream, but she works as a barista. She takes it very seriously and wants to work in Brewzers. She is kind of ruling the roost. Siofra gives adult Hermione Granger [Harry Potter character] vibes, but no magic. She knows her stuff, but can be very much taken up the wrong way.”<\/p>\n

Carrigstown’s newest barista catches the eye of Ben Fahey, played by Cian Fitzsimons. Nancy told us: “Ben definitely fancies Siofra, but I’m not sure Siofra reciprocates those feelings.”<\/p>\n

Nancy “can’t believe” how lucky she is to have landed her job in acting. She added: “I’m definitely a creative person but I had been trying to convince myself I was a tech girl for the past five years and it just wasn’t me. Now I get to be out doing what I love and getting paid. Something in me has definitely lifted, I feel I get to connect with my real self now.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nancy Collins took it as a sign to pursue her first love – acting 10:23, 10 May 2026Updated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60,6085,282,34582],"class_list":["post-441799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-rte","tag-tv","tag-youghal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}