Nikolina Kamenova Dobreva (Bulgarian: Николина Каменова Добрева; born January 9, 1989), known professionally as Nina Dobrev ( DOH-brev), is a Canadian actress. She is known for portraying Elena Gilbert and Katherine Pierce in The CW's supernatural drama series The Vampire Diaries (2009–2015).
Born in Sofia and raised in Toronto, Dobrev made her screen debut playing minor roles in various films, before landing her breakout role as Mia Jones in the drama series Degrassi: The Next Generation (2006–2009). She later rose to prominence with her role in The Vampire Diaries, and appeared in several feature films, including the 2012 coming-of-age drama The Perks of Being a Wallflower, the comedies Let's Be Cops and The Final Girls (2014), and the 2017 science-fiction drama Flatliners. Her biggest commercial success came with XXX: Return of Xander Cage (2017). She also starred in the romantic comedies Dog Days (2018), Then Came You (2018), and Love Hard (2021), and she had a leading role in the sitcom Fam (2019).
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Early life
Nikolina Kamenova Dobreva was born on January 9, 1989, in Sofia, Bulgaria, to Kamen Dobrev, a computer specialist, and Michaela Dobreva (née Radeva), an artist. She has an older brother named Alexander, nicknamed Alex, who is a computer specialist. When she was two, her family relocated to Canada, where she was raised in Scarborough, Toronto and attended Vradenburg Junior Public School. At age 10, she moved back to Bulgaria with her mother for two years.
