The Actress Who Plays Nicole on Veronica Mars Has Actually Worked With Kristen Bell 3 Times

The fourth season of Veronica Mars takes fans on an emotional roller-coaster ride, and a large portion of the credit goes to its amazing ensemble cast. From old favorites to some fresh faces, the Hulu revival gives viewers a little bit of everything — including a fierce newcomer, Nicole Malloy. Nicole may be new to Neptune, but the actress who plays her, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, has been gracing our television screens for quite some time. If her clever one-liners and badass attitude on Veronica Mars seem familiar to you, perhaps it's because she's participated in a few critically acclaimed projects in the last year alone.

The 32-year-old British actress was involved in theater growing up, and eventually moved from her London home to LA in 2011. She got started with the famous Upright Citizens Brigade comedy group, which led to her first role with Kristen Bell on Showtime's House of Lies in 2015. Little did Baptiste know she'd be working with Bell on not one but two more shows in the future.

After picking up roles in ABC's Downward Dog, the movie A Dog's Purpose and Netflix's Love, Baptiste kicked off her unstoppable 2018 with Killing Eve. She took on the part of Sandra Oh's assistant, Elena, who provided some much-needed laughs in the show's dark first season. Speaking of laughs, she also made appearances in Bill Hader's Barry acting class on HBO as Sasha. At the same time, Baptiste reunited with Bell on the set of The Good Place as Chidi's love interest, Simone. Soon after, she jumped into the world of Neptune to take over Comrade Quacks and provided a necessary reality check to Bell's Veronica.

So, what's next for Baptiste? Well, even if there is a Veronica Mars season five, it's unclear whether Nicole would make an appearance given how she and Veronica left things. That said, the actress has plenty to keep her busy, including a comedy-thriller called Happily with Joel McHale, and a CBS series titled Why Women Kill. You haven't seen the last of Baptiste, yet!