Donna Anita Nikolaisen is an Irish actor and voice over artist. She trained at The Focus Theatre (Dublin), Bel Canto School of Voice (Dublin) and Montfort School of Performing Arts (Cork). Her stage credits include the lead role of ‘Silk Campbell’ in No Irish No Blacks No Dogs, ‘Rima’ in Talking to Terrorists, ‘Bertha Mason’ in Jane Eyre at The Gate and a member of ‘The Bacchae Chorus’ in The Bacchae of Baghdad at The Abbey. She played the lead role of ‘Judith Noone’ in the 2024 Irish premiere of award-winning play Belfast Girls by Jaki McCarrick.
Donna’s film credits include the role of ‘Grace Ture’ in Sweetness in the Belly, ‘Paige Monaghan’ in Hallmark’s Christmas at Castle Hart and ‘Ali’ in award-winning short film QED, where she won Best Supporting Actor at the Dublin Underground Cinema Festival 2018.
TV credits include ‘Lucy’ in RTE’s The South Westerlies, ‘Francis Frond’ in cBBC’s Nova Jones and roles in Conversations with Friends, Blood and Kin. Her breakthrough TV role came as Zambian nurse ‘Ama Chisenga’ whom she played for five years on Ireland’s National Soap Drama Fair City (RTE). Based in Ireland Donna is represented by Byron’s Management and Voice Bank.
Donna plays the lead role of ‘Judith Noone’ in the Irish premiere of award-winning play Belfast Girls by Jaki McCarrick. Directed by Anna Simpson from Quintessence Theatre Belfast Girls opened in January 2024 at The Táin (Dundalk) and transferred to The Lyric (Belfast), The Droichead (Drogheda) and The Solstice (Navan).
Represented by Voice Bank, Donna voices roles for animation, games, audiobooks, radio plays and commercials. She voices the role of ‘Mum’ in Cartoon Saloon’s pre-school animation Silly Sundays. Her top credits include the audiobook narration of: Strange Flowers, The Coincidence and Reclaiming. Donna was the voice of ‘Ulster Bank’ for a number of years and she also narrates TV documentaries: The Story of Water (Virgin Media) and Ireland’s Refugee Hotel (BBC/RTE).
Donna narrates the documentary
'The Story of Water', Virgin Media
Watch Frances Frond in episode
'Friends of Nova' on RTE Player
Donna & Fleur
Picture by Úna O’Connor