Nina Dobrev (born Nina Konstantinova Dobreva; in Bulgarian Нина Константинова Добрева January 9, 1989) is a Bulgarian-Canadian actress. She has played the role of Mia Jones, the single teenage mother on Degrassi: The Next Generation, from the shows sixth to ninth season. She currently stars as Elena Gilbert in the TV series The Vampire Diaries.

Early life

Dobrev was born in Sofia, Bulgaria and moved to Canada at the age of two, where she was raised in Toronto, Ontario. Her mother is an artist while her father is a computer specialist. She has one older brother, Aleksander, who is 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.