[3] She joined a convent in the Sisters of Loreto, and has fond memories of her time there: "I loved the nuns and the work they did.
These words returned to her when she was filming for the BBC in Australia and was accosted by "an Australian right-wing homophobe living in Melbourne – a very damaged character".
[4] Nolan came to prominence in 2000 as the runner up in the first series of the British reality show Big Brother.
[5] She was present for a part of reality television history when Craig Phillips took on 'Nasty Nick' Bateman and his manipulative interferences.
[10] In August 2006, Nolan was a presenter of the BBC programme Inside Out when the BBC North East and Cumbria crew filmed Anomalous Phenomena Investigations of Newcastle upon Tyne, conducting a paranormal investigation at Hurworth Grange Community Centre in Hurworth-on-Tees.
[11] In December 2007, she presented Webs of Desire on RTÉ One, during which she investigated the sexual possibilities of the internet, attended a fetishist club to discuss bondage discipline sado-masochism (BDSM) with a male person and interviewed an anonymous man who was accompanied by the caption "Individual Addicted to Porn.
"[12] In August 2010, Nolan featured in Ultimate Big Brother, during which Nikki Grahame felt her head.
Nolan presented The Great Irish Bake Off for TV3[16] and in 2014 was the Development Executive for COCO Television.
[18] Nolan was in a long-term relationship with Dearbhla Walsh, an Emmy Award-winning drama director[3][19] but in 2014 she told Brendan O’Connor on The Saturday Night Show that she "had to adjust to being single".
[3][24] She was also supportive of Jade Goody during her cancer battle, and met her a number of times, even though they featured in separate series of Big Brother.
[25][26] Nolan, who was previously a sister in Dublin's Loreto Order, today considers herself an atheist.
[3] On 10 January 2010, she hosted a special one-off programme for RTÉ One television entitled O Sister Where Art Thou?