It might be the medical breakthrough the world has been waiting for. Based on a sample size of one, it appears that an Emmy nod can cure Covid. Sarah Niles was laid up in bed at home in London when she heard that, 5,000 miles away in Los Angeles, she’d been nominated for best supporting actress in a comedy series. “I was feeling really sick,” she says, “but I soon got better. A few hours later I started testing negative.”
Her role as the sports psychologist Dr Sharon Fieldstone in the hit football comedy Ted Lasso has brought overdue acclaim for an actor who’s been flitting between stage and screen for two decades. Niles is a regular performer at the National Theatre, the Royal Court, the Old Vic and the RSC. TV viewers might recognise her from I May Destroy You, as Officer Funmi, who interviews Michaela Coel’s character after she’s raped. Or from Catastrophe, as Sharon Horgan’s sarky schoolteacher colleague Melissa. Film fans might know her from Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky, or Sarah Gavron’s Rocks.
