In celebration of Nina’s brand-new romantic comedy Love Hard premiering on Netflix on November 5th, YEM is taking a closer look at the life and career of Nina Dobrev!
Bulgarian-born Nikolina Kamenova Dobreva (professionally known as Nina Dobrev) has had quite an impressive career so far and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down any time soon. Nina and her family moved from Bulgaria to Canada in the early 90s. It was in Toronto where Nina began her career by modeling and taking acting classes. Nina soon got her first big acting break on the teen-drama TV show Degrassi: The Next Generation, where she played Mia Jones for three seasons.
Degrassi discussed many important and serious topics that teens face as they grow up. Nina’s character Mia was no exception. When Mia was 13 years old, she lost her virginity to an older high-school student and subsequently gave birth to a daughter named Isabella. This became the basis of many of the character’s storylines on the show. After the birth of Isabella, Mia became a single teenage Mom and because of this, there was a lot of unfair judgment and bias placed on her by many of the other students in the school.
Nina’s role on Degrassi quickly led to her scoring other opportunities in numerous TV shows and movies. Nina’s now appeared in more than 20 films to date. Besides Nina’s long list of big-screen appearances, she’s also acted in 18 different television shows, in both onscreen and voice acting roles. Let’s also not forget her music video gigs either, including her role in “I’m Upset,” which is a song by megastar rapper, Drake. For those who are not aware, Nina and Drake used to work together on Degrassi: The Next Generation. The concept of the music video was a Degrassi high-school reunion which featured many of the actors from the show.
All that aside, YEM fans know Nina best from starring in The CW supernatural drama series The Vampire Diaries, playing the lead role of Elena Gilbert. Nina soon did double duty on the show by also portraying a vampire look-alike (although with a much darker side to her) named Katherine Pierce. It didn’t end there! Nina took on the role of Amara in season 5, the world’s first immortal (that Elena and Katherine were mortal doppelgangers of), before later appearing as the first-known doppelganger of Amara (named Tatia) on The Vampire Diaries-spinoff series The Originals.
The Vampire Diaries lasted 8 seasons in all, with Dobrev starring in the first six seasons and then making special appearances in the final two. The success of The Vampire Diaries led Nina (and the show itself) to become a huge award-winner over the years, including tons of Teen Choice, People’s Choice, and Young Hollywood nominations and wins.
Be sure to take a look back at YEM’s hottest vampires of The Vampire Diaries here:
https://youngentertainmentmag.com/top-10-hottest-vamps-in-the-vampire-diaries-universe/
So what’s next for Nina Dobrev? Besides working as an executive producer (as well as acting) in a few current and upcoming projects, Nina’s latest film shows her playing a character who’s unlucky in love. The holiday-based Love Hard shows Nina (playing a character named Natalie) getting “catfished” when she shows up to meet a guy she’d been talking to through an online dating app, only to find out he looks nothing like the photos she’d been sent.
