Nicole Wallace is good behind the wheel. In Culpa Mía, she power-slides her Porsche sports car to a street race victory and now she’s shifting the gears of her career. With starring roles in Postcards From Italy, and motor-racing drama Throttled, the streaming icon is hitting top speed.

The Culpables movies were a streaming phenomenon that brought star Nicole Wallace to audiences the world over.

After playing Nora in the Spanish version of teen drama Skam, she landed the role of Noah in Culpa mía (My Fault), the first part of the Culpables series from author Mercedes Ron. The series follows an on-off-on romance between Noah and Nick (Gabriel Guevara), the son of her mother’s new and uber-wealthy husband. Culpa tuya (Your Fault) and Culpa nuestra (Our Fault) followed, with the three Spanish-language films racking up more than 100 million viewers on Prime Video, the streamer says.

Now, having taken on that big-ticket role, she is doing more romance, and moving into English-language films and series. Even if a fourth Culpables movie emerges (Ron’s fourth novel in the series Culpa vuestra was released earlier this year), Wallace’s next act moves her beyond Noah.

Culpa mía was the start of a roller-coaster journey for Wallace. “I knew that it was a big book, but I didn’t imagine that it could have turned into all of this,” the Spanish-American actress says. “I liked that I could be this strong, independent female in this type of movie that I hadn’t seen before. Now, there are so many more characters like Noah in romance movies and I’m happy and grateful for that, but I think she was one of the first ones I had read.”

As Nick and Noah’s lives play out over three films, they grow up on screen and Wallace says there is a version of the character that she liked playing the most.

“There’s a moment in the third book and third movie after they hook up for the second time, and she leaves before he wakes up, and she’s crying in the car. That, for me, is so interesting, because it encapsulates who she is; she’s vulnerable, she’s emotional, and she loves with all of her heart, but she is very strong in terms of what she has to do to protect herself. And even if she loves this man, she will leave because that’s what she deserves.”

She adds: “From that point on, the rest of the third movie is full, not of love for what she’s lived with this person. There’s that portion of the movie that feels very mature but still very Noah.”

For Ron, Wallace’s performance held true to her books. The author says: “Nicole was the perfect choice to bring Noah to life. She showed a deep understanding and genuine affection for the character. She also understood the importance of Noah’s journey and development throughout all three movies. Her performance allowed the character to evolve naturally, but also keep the qualities that readers love about Noah.”

Life After Noah

Wallace says that Culpa nuestra is her favorite move from the Culpables franchise and it seemingly brought the story to a close but Ron’s fourth book Culpa Vuestra goes on to tell the story of Nick and Noah years on. It raises the tantalizing possibility of another movie installment, although nothing is confirmed.

With three films in the rear-view mirror, is there still more in the tank when it comes to playing Noah? “I think it would feel very weird,” Wallace says when asked about a possible return. She says she has not read the new book or had any conversations about reprising the role. “They’re much older and I just don’t think I would connect to it in the same way.

“This project is such a big thing in my career and in my life, and it transformed everything for me; I would feel very weird coming back to it. I was doing the premiere for the last one last year, and I did close a chapter and go through the grief of letting it go and remembering the good parts and the bad parts.”

Post Culpables, there is clear road ahead, says Wallace. “I’m excited to be able to kind of show more and prove myself again in other ways.”

Summoning The Spirits

A pivot to a prestige period piece is a sure-fire way to show range. Wallace starred in The House of the Spirits, the Prime Video series adaptation of Isabel Allende’s classic novel, from Anora producer FilmNation Entertainment in association with Fabula, Pablo Larraín’s production label.

She is one of three actors to play the ethereal Clara at different stages of her life in the drama. The story is an epic inter-generational tale of a family across decades of violent change. Clara is a clairvoyant with telekinetic powers and is the beating heart of the story. In the series, Wallace picks up from Francesca Turco, who plays Clara as a child. She then hands off to Dolores Fonzi, who stars as the older version of the character.

She had to choose between The House of the Spirits and a movie project that was on the table. Her gut told her to choose the Allende adaptation and her reaction to landing the part, and assessment of the scripted series, suggests she made the right call.

“I cried when I got the call and they told me that I was going to play her,” she says. “We’re in a moment where so much is coming in, there’s so much production, it’s hard to find [projects] that are going to stick. It’s that type of show that stays with you.”

Wallace plays the young adult Clara at a crucial point in her story, as she confronts love and the supernatural forces shaping her world, and gets married to Esteban Trueba, played by Alfonso Herrera (Ozark).

“She is in a very interesting period of her life when she’s found what she wants and why she’s on Earth, and she has this calling. That gets a little bit destroyed in one specific moment,” Wallace says. “But I wanted to also give her a lot of light because I think women have lived through these horrible relationships and moments in history and somehow they still hang on to love and they still hang on to one another.”

Clara’s relationship with Esteban is tempestuous. She does not conform to the social norms of the day and advocates for women’s empowerment and suffrage while he is a ruthless businessman and womanizer. In reality, Herrera was tender. “He was so scared, and was so careful, even in our kissing scenes, because of the difference in age,” Wallace says. “For me, it was nice to see that from him. Not because I want him to feel bad, but because that meant that he was putting a lot of thought into everything. He wanted to respect not only me but the scenes, and so it was honest.”

English Class

Postcards From Italy will be her first English-language project to reach audiences. Directed by Oscar winner Jessica Yu (Only Murders in the Building), the fish-out-of-water tale sees a privileged young woman from New York’s Upper West Side make her own way in Italy. Wallace plays Mia, a spoiled heiress who is sent by her grandfather to Palermo, Sicily, without money or her customary luxuries, to work as a real estate agent in the family business.

“It’s a very different register for me,” says Wallace. “It’s a comedy and I’ve never done comedy. Mia is also the first character that I’m playing that is not super young. Even with Clara, although she feels very mature and she has kids, I’m still playing a 20-year-old. This is the first time I’m playing a 24/25-year-old, [which is] my age. That is something that people are going to see for the first time from me.”

Speaking about moving into acting in English, Wallace says: “My whole personality changes when I speak a different language. I’m proving myself all over again because people like some voices in one language and then don’t like them in another, so anything could happen.”

Next up for Wallace is Throttled, based on the first of Lauren Asher’s Dirty Air book series and set in a fictionalized version of the high-stakes world of Formula 1.

For Wallace, it is her first U.S.-originated project and another English-language role. She stars opposite Off Campus breakout Josh Heuston, meaning the producers have recruited two red-hot actors who built their stardom in the world of YA.

“It’s a romance, but it’s very sports driven, so that’s something that’s very new to me,” says Wallace. She plays Maya, the sister of one of the Formula 1 drivers.

“She’s a math major, she loves F1 and knows all of the engineering. She falls for her brother’s rival [Heuston’s Noah Slade], so there’s a conflict of interest and family loyalty going on, but also, it’s about a female in a very male-dominated sport. I’m excited to be able to dive in and [explore] how she experiences all of that.”

“I am a pretty good driver. I love speed and, yeah, love driving,” the star says. That worked out well in the Culpables movies, replete as they are with shiny fast cars as well as romance and drama.

Having been to see F1 up close as part of her research, Wallace says the sport evoked a familiar sensation. “It feels kind of like production on a movie,” she says. “There are the actors who are the face of it, but there are hundreds of people on the other side that make the whole thing work.”

Actor To Producer

Last year Wallace struck an exclusive talent deal with Amazon MGM Studios and now she wants to glean some producer smarts as she thinks about getting her own projects off the ground. “I’ve been pitching stuff,” she says. “That was a very big thing for me, to be able to just learn from the inside and also from the best.”

In terms of producing, Wallace breaks down what she is interested in. “I obviously prioritize female protagonists and being able to tell stories about complicated, messy women. And there’s something about female rage that I’m very interested in. This is a very exciting moment with shows like Furious. And I love fantasy. I am such a fantasy nerd.”

She will also stay connected to the young adult genre. “I would love to be able to do indie stuff, and I want to do horror, action, sci-fi and all of these things, but I also still want to be true to the people that have stayed with me,” she says. “I want to still do YA.”

Watch List

Life since the Culpables became a global hit has, Wallace says, been “a roller-coaster with pit stops on the way.”

What does a breakout star do during those pit stops? Wallace rides her horse, hangs out with her friends (the same ones from before she was famous), and goes to the movies, enjoying blockbusters and indie fare alike (she enthuses about La bola negra, Spain’s entry for the Best International Oscar this year, which recently won the People’s Choice Award at Toronto).

Embracing more mainstream pics, she watched Spider-Man: A Brand New Day five times in the movie theater and says it struck a nerve. “I came out of the cinema feeling like I was eight years old,” she says. “That feeling when you see a movie and you feel like your whole personality and world has changed. I hadn’t felt like that in a really long time and I realized, ‘Oh, this is why I like to act, and this is why I’m an actor.’”

With Spanish and English series and movies now on her IMDb page, Wallace can start planning the next stage. She has a singing career and wants to do musical theater, but on-screen, the plan is a career that can take in both franchises and festival fare. She also wants to work with her sister Chloé, who is a director.

“I love a big thing, coming from a franchise that has a remake and doing The House of the Spirits, and I still want to do those, but I also want to do the grungy, no-money movies.”

If Wallace is Deadline’s cover star in 10 years’ time, what does she want to have achieved?

“Maybe having done theater or musical theater, obviously Broadway or the West End is the goal, and having produced my own things would be great,” she says.

Is there someone who has paved the way? “I would love to [work] like Margot Robbie,” she decides. “She’s obviously at the front of a lot of the things that she does, but she also gives chances to other creators and writers and directors and actors.”

Off the back of her success, and deep in career-planning mode, Wallace is determined not to get caught in analysis-paralysis.

“I see a lot of actors that stop working because they overthink it so much and feel vulnerable about picking the wrong project and not getting called ever again,” she says.

“I love to work so I’ve been trying to find somewhere between not just diving into whatever comes up, but also being grateful that I’m working, especially now that I’m doing things in the U.S.”

Grounded but purposeful, Wallace clearly has no intention of taking her foot off the gas.

Faultless Numbers & Remake Reactions

The Culpables franchise has done the numbers for Prime Video. In 2024, Deadline was the first to report that the second installment of the franchise, Culpa tuya, was the streamer’s biggest-ever international launch at the time. That paved the way for Culpa nuestra, and Prime Video said this April that the three movies have been watched by more than 100 million people.

Wallace says the success of the Culpables films first hit home when Deadline started reporting the stats and their international success. The massive numbers have seen her and Mercedes Ron ink deals with Amazon MGM Studios.

English-language remakes of the Culpables films have followed, with My Fault: London and Your Fault: London doing well in Prime Video’s rankings. Asha Banks and Matthew Broome play Noah and Nick, respectively, in the films. Our Fault: London has wrapped and drops in 2027.

Wallace first heard about the English-language take on the Culpables movies on X. “They had two female directors, and they had more liberty to be able to change the dialog and change the storyline because it was a remake,” she says. Wallace applauds Banks’ take on Noah. “She had a lot of fun with it and made her a little bit different than my Noah, which I think is fun and interesting. People love that version. Matt did the same thing.”

More broadly, adaptations of Ron’s work dominate the Prime Video charts. As Deadline goes to press, five of the 10 most watched non-English-language films on the streamer are adaptations of her work, with Drawn Together (Enfrentados) sitting top of the pile.

Amazon MGM’s Generational Deal

Buoyed by the success of the Culpables, Amazon MGM Studios struck an exclusive talent deal with Wallace last year. She will star in its movies and series and also has ambitions to produce.

Nicole Clemens is the Paramount+ alum now in charge of international originals for Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios. “Nicole is a generational talent and this is only the beginning for our journey together,” she says. “Her charisma radiates off the screen. Whether she’s charming audiences as Noah in Culpa, or breaking their hearts as Clara in The House of the Spirits, Nicole’s ability to connect with people all over the world is unmatched.”

With some hits in the bank and an overall deal with Amazon MGM, Wallace and her team can now take the time to plot what comes next.

“When you get a certain degree of privilege in the industry where you can choose projects,” says Wallace, “you have to find a strategy with your career and what type of projects you want to do. That’s something that I’ve been learning a lot these past two years.”