Nina Dobrev is a Bulgarian-Canadian actress who is well known for appearing on the supernatural romantic drama TV series, The Vampire Diaries (2009). She also played Mia Jones in the long-running teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation from 2006 to 2009. Dobrev has also appeared in movies like
Away from Her (2007),
Too Young to Marry (2007), The Poet (2007),
Chloe (2009),
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012),
Let's Be Cops (2014) and
The Final Girls (2015). She also stars along with Vin Diesel and Deepika Padukone in
xXx: Return of Xander Cage (2017), the sequel to the 2002 commercial hit xXx.
Early Life
Nina Dobrev was born Nikolina Konstantinova Dobreva on January 9, 1989, at Sofia, Bulgaria. Her family consists of her father, Konstantin Dobrev, who is a computer specialist, her mother, Michaela Dobreva, an artist.and her older brother, Aleksandar Dobrev.
Dobrev completed her schooling from Vradenburg Junior Public School and then from J. B. Tyrrell Sr. Public School. Since her school days, Dobrev has been enthusiastic about ballet dancing, theatre acting, rhythmic gymnastics and visual arts. Dobrev did the art program from Wexford Collegiate School for the Arts in Scarborough. She majored in Sociology from Ryerson University. She enrolled at the Armstrong Acting Studios in Toronto. In 2006 she left to pursue a career in acting.
Personal Life
Nina Dobrev was in a relationship with her co-star from the hit TV show The Vampire Diaries, Ian Somerhalder. They started dating in March 2010. Somerhalder broke up with Dobrev in April 2013, after she refused to get married to him. Incidentally, their characters on The Vampire Diaries were also romantically linked.
In August 2013, Dobrev started dating American dancer Derek Hough. Derek Hough is Julianne Hough’s brother. Julianne is Dobrev’s best friend and supported her during her break up. They broke up in November 2013.
She also dated
Austin Stowell in 2015. They broke up seven months into the relationship.
Television Career
Dobrev began her television career in the made for television movie, Playing House (2006). She played a younger version of the lead character, Frannie Mackenzie, played by Joanne Kelly in the TV movie. Dobrev was next seen in the 2001 TV show, Degrassi: The Next Generation. She joined the cast as Mia Jones, a recurring character in the long-running show.
After being a part of several TV movies and blink and miss TV roles, Dobrev finally landed the lead character in The CW TV show, The Vampire Diaries. The supernatural romantic drama featured her in triple roles from different generations as Elena Gilbert, Katherine Pierce and Amara. This was her claim to fame. Elena Gilbert and Damon Salvatore, the characters portrayed by Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder were immensely popular. They started dating off-screen when the show was in the second season.
Dobrev’s other TV roles include guest roles on a Family Guy (2011) and The Super Hero Squad Show (2011) episode. She also starred in The Vampire Diaries spin-off, The Originals (2013) as Tatia. Tatia is the ancestor of Elena on the show.
Movie Career
Nina Dobrev made her debut in the 2006 short horror musical, Repo! The Genetic Opera. It was directed by Darren Lynn Bousman who also went on to direct the feature-length movie based on the short.
Dobrev’s first full fledged movie was
Away from Her (2006), all though she had only a minor role in it. She was also part of movies like The Poet (2007),
Fugitive Pieces (2007) and
Too Young to Marry (2007). In 2009 she starred as Anna in
Atom Egoyan’s
Chloe. The movie had Hollywood veterans
Liam Neeson and
Julianne Moore in the lead roles. The movie was a commercial success. She had acting roles in
The Roommate (2011), Arena (2011),
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012),
Let's Be Cops (2014) and the slasher comedy
The Final Girls (2015). In
xXx: Return of Xander Cage (2017) Dobrev will be seen starring alongside
Vin Diesel,
Donnie Yen,
Samuel L. Jackson and
Deepika Padukone. The movie is directed by
D.J. Caruso.