Nigel Tufnel (1945-) is the fictional lead guitarist of the rock band Spinal Tap featured in the 1984 mockumentary film This Is Spinal Tap. He is played by actor Christopher Guest.

Nigel's hobbies include collecting guitars; particularly noteworthy is his un-played unlooked-at foam green six string Fender Bass VI. He also has Gibson Les Paul 1959 model, whose acoustic properties he praises. He also plays mandolin, piano, and does backing vocals. He is currently writing a classical piece in D minor which he claims is the 'saddest of all keys' and is provisionally entitled 'Lick My Love Pump'.

Nigel has a great love for Gumby, carrying a figurine in his shirt pocket and wearing Gumby shirts frequently. He is also a self-proclaimed 'fish nut', liking cod and canned tuna because it has 'no bones'. Nigel currently sits on the Editorial Board of his preferred in-flight periodical, Car and Driver.

Tufnel was born in Squatney, East London. He got his first guitar from his father at the age of six, a sunburst 'Rhythm King'. His life changed when he met David St Hubbins (played by the actor Michael McKean) who lived next door. They began jamming together in a toolshed in David's garden, influenced by early blues artists like Honkin' Bubba Fulton, Little Sassy Francis and particularly Big Little Daddy' Coleman, a deaf guitar player, and wrote their first song, (Cry) All the Way Home. Before long they had formed the Thamesmen and the rest is history.

Tufnel has stated that if he wasn't in the music industry he would like to either enter the field of haberdashery or become a surgeon: 'I like surgery'.

Tufnel's work outside Spinal Tap includes his appearance on the 1979 album "Lenny & Squiggy sing Lenny and the Squigtones", released on Casablanca Records. Lenny & Squiggy were fictional characters on the TV series Laverne & Shirley, and Lenny, like Spinal Tap's David St. Hubbins was played by Michael McKean.