Well-known Welsh actress opens up about breakout role that changed her outlook on life

Amelia Jones

A Welsh actress has reflected on the career-defining role that changed her outlook on life, revealing it taught her one lesson she has carried with her ever since: “Don’t waste time trying to be somebody else.”

Speaking on the Half The Picture podcast, presented by film lover Billy Barnell, actress Kimberley Nixon looked back on playing Josie Jones in Channel 4 comedy-drama Fresh Meat, describing the character as a “huge learning curve” that shaped not only her acting career but also her personal life.

Nixon starred as Josie in all four series of the acclaimed university comedy, which followed a group of students navigating friendships, relationships and the challenges of early adulthood. The series, created by the team behind Peep Show, became a cult favourite after first airing in 2011 and helped establish Nixon as one of Wales’ best-known television actors.

She said: “Josie was a really huge learning curve for me personally in my life, she was kind of like the wayward little sister that you’re just kind of trying to keep on the rails in that way that you do as a teenager and when you go to university, and even into your 20s.

“You’re trying to figure out who you are, who people want you to be. Josie was this wholesome, sweet-looking girl next door had like the mouth of a sailor.

“She just made terrible decisions, but she taught me really quickly through her, that don’t waste time trying to be somebody else or pretending something you’re not. It’s genuinely such a waste of time. That then in my real life I just kind of kind of cut through and was a bit more like: ‘No I’m just gonna be me.’

“She really taught me that, because I got to see through her, the consequences of constantly trying to keep a front up and it’s exhausting.”

Nixon was born in Bristol to Welsh parents, but she grew up in Ynysybwl, near Pontypridd, in the south Wales Valleys, alongside her six brothers. She attended Coedylan Comprehensive School (now Pontypridd High School) before training at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff

Nixon has gone on to enjoy a successful career across television and film, but said the lessons she learned while playing Josie remain with her years after Fresh Meat came to an end, describing the role as one that had a lasting impact both on and off screen.

She is currently touring Baby Brain, her critically acclaimed one-woman show about motherhood and postpartum psychosis, which debuted to sold-out audiences in Cardiff before heading to festivals across the UK. You can catch it at Edinburgh Fringe this month.

---

Get more trusted Welsh news

Choose Nation.Cymru as a preferred source in Google News to see more of our journalism.