Nell Rose Hudson (born 19 November 1990) is an English actress best known for her recurring roles as Laoghaire MacKenzie in the Starz television drama Outlander and Nancy Skerrett in the ITV period drama Victoria.
Hudson was born on 19 November 1990 in a small village in West Midlands, England. The middle of three children, Hudson spent her childhood on a farm before deciding, as a teenager, to pursue acting. Hudson attended the Oxford School of Drama, performing in plays such as The Crucible and Closer, eventually graduating with a degree in acting.
Hudson's first professional role, in 2012, was a guest spot in an episode of the fifteenth series of the BBC One medical drama Holby City. Later that year she appeared in Garrick Hamm's short film Cast Offs and director Bruce Logan's short Les Bohemes. In 2014, she landed the role of Laoghaire MacKenzie in Starz's time travel drama Outlander, based upon Diana Gabaldon's best-selling book series. The character is recurring and will continue throughout the series. On her character during the series' mid-season episode, Hudson stated that "when you are in just a lot of pain, it comes out as anger… I think that's quite a human characteristic, basically, and I think that's definitely what happens is that she's got all this pain and she doesn't know what to do with it and it comes out in this very kind of aggressive way and she does whatever she can do to rectify the situation."