Nico Blake (also Bradley) is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Persephone Swales-Dawson. The character made her first screen appearance during the episode broadcast on 6 June 2014. The character and casting was announced on 20 May 2014. Nico is the daughter and niece of established twins characters Dodger Savage (Danny Mac) and Sienna Blake (Anna Passey), the adoptive daughter of Sienna's boyfriend Ben Bradley (Ben Richards), and the granddaughter of Sienna and Dodger's parents Patrick Blake (Jeremy Sheffield) and Anna Blake (Saskia Wickham) and the niece of their half-brother Will Savage (James Atherton) and their half-sisters Liberty Savage (Abi Phillips/Jessamy Stoddart) and Minnie Minniver, and a half-sister and cousin of Dodger's daughter Myra-Pocahontas Savage-McQueen.
Nico's prominent storylines include: a fraught relationship with Sienna and Patrick; kidney failure from the "End of the Line" train crash; discovering that Dodger is actually her biological father; a relationship with Dylan Jenkins (James Fletcher); accidentally killing Ben's daughter, Carly Bradley (Sophie Wise) with a paperweight; her crush on Jason Roscoe (Alfie Browne-Sykes) and stalking his girlfriend Holly Cunningham (Amanda Clapham); coldly murdering Patrick, who is terminally ill, by smothering him; attempting to murder Theresa McQueen (Jorgie Porter) for her kidney; pushing Will off the hospital roof; stabbing Sienna; suffering a heart attack when she requires another kidney transplant; murdering Dylan's father Trevor Royle (Greg Wood) by stabbing him on his wedding day to Grace Black (Tamara Wall); bullying cancer patient Jade Albright (Kassius Nelson) with her friend Peri Lomax (Ruby O'Donnell), whom she later develops an unhealthy obsession with and holds hostage.
Nico was seemingly killed off on 1 November 2016, as part of the show's "Halloween Spooktacular" episodes. Nico becomes trapped in a maze by a fire and fallen debris after a final showdown with Sienna, which was caused by Peri's father, Cameron Campbell (Cameron Moore), after he discovers Nico's psychotic tendencies. She made an unannounced return on 15 May 2018, when she was revealed as Sienna's stalker. Following her return, her storylines included seemingly killing Sienna, however Sienna faked her own death in order to catch Nico; revealing herself to be heavily pregnant; attempting to kill Peri's friend Harley Frater (Mollie Lambert); holding Peri and Harley hostage; giving birth to her daughter and being killed by Sienna in self-defence.
In 2020, Nico made several appearances as a hallucination to Liberty Savage (Jessamy Stoddart), who starts to suffer from postnatal depression after giving birth to baby Faith.
Storylines
2014–2016
Nico arrives in the village and steals food from Dodger. He tries to help her out and she steals a bracelet belonging to Sienna. Nico is injured when Jason Roscoe (Alfie Browne-Sykes) throws bricks through Dodger's window. She later causes a fight with Jason and later Holly Cunningham (Amanda Clapham). She befriends Leela Lomax (Kirsty-Leigh Porter) to get closer to Sienna. She overhears Sienna telling Leela that she has found her daughter, but is disheartened to find out that Sienna believes it to be someone else. Unbeknownst to Nico, Patrick has manipulated Sienna into believing her daughter is elsewhere. Nico tells Sienna the truth but she slaps her and calls her a liar. Feeling rejected Nico reignites an old feud between Sienna and Nancy Osborne (Jessica Fox). Nico then attacks Nancy and plants Sienna's bracelet at the scene to frame her. Sienna eventually discovers that Nico is her true daughter and happily welcomes her into the family.