Nina Kamenova Dobreva, known as Nina Dobrev, was born on January 9, 1989, in Sofia, Bulgaria. Her parents are Kamen, a computer expert, and Michaela, an artist. She has an older brother. When Nina was two, her family moved to Canada, and she grew up in Toronto. She lived in Bulgaria for two years when she was ten. Nina went to Vradenburg Junior Public School and J. B. Tyrrell Sr. Public School, where she learned ballet and jazz and did rhythmic gymnastics. She later studied acting at Armstrong Acting Studios in Toronto and attended Wexford Collegiate School for the Arts. Nina started college at Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University) in Toronto, studying sociology but left to pursue acting.
Nina’s first major role was as Mia Jones in the teen drama series Degrassi: The Next Generation from 2006 to 2009. She starred in several TV movies and minor film roles before landing the lead role in The Vampire Diaries in 2009, playing Elena Gilbert and Katherine Pierce until 2015. She also appeared in the show’s spinoff, The Originals. Nina returned for the series finale in 2017.
She starred in various movies, including The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), Let’s Be Cops (2014), The Final Girls (2015), XXX: Return of Xander Cage (2017), Flatliners (2017), Dog Days (2018), Then Came You (2018), and Love Hard (2021). Nina also starred in the sitcom Fam in 2019, and in films like Lucky Day (2019) and Run This Town (2020). She will produce and star in a TV adaptation of the book Woman 99.
Nina supports several charitable causes, including Project Pink for breast cancer, Hunger Bites to fight hunger in Pennsylvania, and the WE movement, which empowers young people. She has participated in volunteer work in Kenya and hosted and appeared at WE Day events.
Nina is a dual citizen of Bulgaria and Canada and speaks English, Bulgarian, and some French. She lived in Atlanta while filming The Vampire Diaries and moved to Los Angeles in 2015. Nina has invested in beverage companies and co-owns Fresh Vine Wine with Julianne Hough. She dated her co-star Ian Somerhalder from 2010 to 2013 and has been in a relationship with Shaun White since 2020.