Nina Dobrev

Nikolina Konstantinova Dobreva (Bulgarian: Николина Константинова Добрева; born January 9, 1989),known professionally as Nina Dobrev, is a Canadian actress and model. She played the role of Mia Jones, the single teenage mother, on Degrassi: The Next Generation, from the show's sixth to ninth season. She currently stars as Elena Gilbert and Katherine Pierce on The CW American television teen drama, The Vampire Diaries.

Early life

Nina Dobrev was born in Sofia, People's Republic of Bulgaria (now Republic of Bulgaria) as Николина Константинова Добрева, and moved to Canada at the age of two, where she was raised in Toronto, Ontario. She speaks fluent French, English, and Bulgarian. She has an older brother, Alexander; her father is a computer specialist and her mother is an artist.
Dobrev attended J. B. Tyrrell Sr. Public School, where she started ballet and jazz classes, and competed in rhythmic gymnastics. Then, she attended Wexford Collegiate School for the Arts in Scarborough, Ontario and Ryerson University in Toronto, majoring in sociology. She left in 2008 to pursue her acting career.

Career

Dobrev at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival

Modeling jobs led to commercials, which then turned into film auditions. Shortly thereafter, she booked roles in feature films, including Fugitive Pieces, Away from Her, Never Cry Werewolf, and the television series Degrassi: The Next Generation. She starred in a number of Lifetime original movies. In 2007 she appeared in the music video of You Got That Light performed by Wade Allain-Marcus and David Baum. She also was in an MTV movie called The American Mall on CTV. She is currently starring in The CW's drama The Vampire Diaries, playing the dual role of Katherine Pierce, a vampire loved by two human brothers during the American Civil War, and Katherine's doppelgänger Elena Gilbert, a human who is caught between the same two brothers, now vampires, Damon and Stefan Salvatore.
She also had a minor role in the erotic thriller Chloe, theatrically released by Sony Pictures Classics on March 26, 2010. The film had enjoyed commercial success and became director Atom Egoyan's biggest moneymaker ever.
In April 2011, she was cast as Candace in the film adaptation of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, alongside Logan Lerman, Emma Watson and Paul Rudd.Shooting began in May of that year in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and she completed her scenes on June 27, 2011.
In 2012 she appeared in a Funny or Die music video with Nick Braun called SPF. The song, written by Dobrev, Braun, and hip-hop producer Jewels Beats, charted as high as #188 on iTunes Comedy Charts.

Personal life

While working on the show, Dobrev began dating her Vampire Diaries co-star Ian Somerhalder.Dobrev was arrested for disorderly conduct on August 22, 2009 in Smarr, Georgia for loitering on a bridge during a photo shoot with Candice Accola, Sara Canning, Kayla Ewell and photographer Tyler Shields. The charges were later dismissed.