met with favorable reception from audiences and critics, having garnered her two nominations for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2010 and 2013. In 2014 and 2020, she ascended and received her third and fourth Daytime Emmy nominations in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series category. Storylines 1998–2006 Overworked and underpaid waitress Nicole comes to Salem with dreams of becoming a model and meets Eric Brady (Jensen Ackles). Eric convinces his sister Sami (Alison Sweeney) to give Nicole a modeling contract, landing Nicole on the cover of Bella magazine. Despite her success, Nicole seems to be hiding something. It is eventually revealed that Nicole is being followed by her ex-boyfriend, Jay. As Eric and Nicole fall in love, a jealous Jay threatens to tell Nicole's secrets. Nicole develops friendships with Sami and Kate Roberts (Lauren Koslow), even planning Sami's bachelorette party. Kate's son and Sami's ex-boyfriend Lucas (Bryan Dattilo) starts showering Nicole with gifts despite his mother's disapproval; Lucas wants to use Nicole to get custody of his son Will from Sami. Meanwhile, Nicole's sister, Taylor Raines (Katherine Ellis), comes to Salem and befriends Eric and Lucas uses the relationship to keep Nicole and Eric apart so he can have her for himself. Taylor catches on to Lucas's schemes and skips town while Nicole agrees to marriage in exchange for $5 million, leaving Eric devastated and running him out of town. When Victor Kiriakis (John Aniston) takes the money away from her, Nicole decides to help Sami regain custody of Will. Also, a brief cancer scare forces Nicole to realize the error of her ways. She shares a brief reunion with Eric and divorces Lucas. However, Eric helps Nicole open up about her troubled past and being forced into porn as a teenager by her father, Paul Mendez. Nicole cozies up to Victor by exposing Kate's plot to kill him and also uses his grandson Brady Black (Kyle Lowder) in her schemes. Victor and Nicole eventually marry on New Year's Eve in 2002 only for Nicole to fake his death with the help of Jan Spears (Heather Lauren Olson), leaving Nicole as the wealthy grieving widow who has fallen for her step-grandson. However, Nicole's plans begin to unravel when Victor is discovered alive. Meanwhile, in an effort to keep Brady for herself, Nicole tries to disfigure his presumed-dead first love, Chloe