Nina Dobrev

Name: Nina Constantinova Dobreva Stage Name: Nina Dobrev Height: 5′ 6½” (1.69 m) Nationality: Canadian Birth Date: 9 January 1989, Sofia, Bulgaria Occupation: Actress

Early Life

Dobrev was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, and then moved to Canada at the age of two. She lived in Toronto, Ontario, until her relocation to Atlanta, Georgia for her job. Her mother is an artist while her father is a computer specialist. She has one older brother who is now studying to become an engineer. She attended J. B. Tyrrell Sr. Public School and Wexford Collegiate School for the Arts in Scarborough, Ontario. From a very young age, she showed great enthusiasm and talent for the arts — dance, gymnastics, theater, music, visual arts, and acting. Dobrev attended the Dean Armstrong Acting school where she was discovered by many different talent agencies in Toronto. Aside from participating in international gymnastics competitions as a teen, Dobrev also did commercial modeling, which eventually led to auditioning for film and television.

Career

Modeling jobs led to commercials, which then turned into film auditions. Shortly thereafter, she booked roles in feature films. Nina appeared in several TV movies produced in Canada. Most notable among her credits are the critically-acclaimed and award-winning drama films Away From Her (2006) and Fugitive Pieces (2007), both of which were played at the Toronto Film Festival. In 2007, she got to wear her dancing shoes for the MTV movie musical The American Mall, where she played the lead character Ally, an aspiring musician struggling to keep her family’s music store afloat.
On television, Nina is famous for portraying the character of a teenage mom, Mia Jones, in the 6th and 7th seasons of the popular CTV teen drama, Degrassi: The Next Generation. In 2009, she joined the CW family when she was cast as the female lead, Elena Gilbert, in the network’s vampire drama, The Vampire Diaries.