b>Nina Dobrev (born Nina Constantinova Dobreva; January 9, 1989) is a Bulgarian-Canadian actress and model. She has played the role of Mia Jones, the single teenage mother on Degrassi: The Next Generation, since the show's sixth season. She currently stars as Elena Gilbert in the TV series The Vampire Diaries.

Dobrev was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, and moved to Canada at the age of two. She lived in Toronto, Ontario, until her relocation to Atlanta, Georgia for her job. Her mother is an artist while her father is a computer specialist. She has one older brother, Alexander, 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.

Dobrev attended Wexford Collegiate School for the Arts in Toronto until her graduating year. She entered secondary studies at Ryerson University in Toronto, majoring in sociology, before dropping out in 2008 to pursue her acting career.

Career

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 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 Elena, a human who is caught between two vampire brothers.

She also had a bit role in the erotic thriller Chloe, theatrically released by Sony Pictures Classics on March 26, 2010.

Filmography

2006 Away from Her
2007 The Poet
Fugitive Pieces
My Daughter's Secret
2008 How She Move
Mookies Law
2009 Chloe
You Got That Light
2011 American Empire

2006 Playing House
2007 Too Young to Marry
2008 The American Mall
Never Cry Werewolf
2009 Degrassi Goes Hollywood
2006 - 2009 Degrassi: The Next Generation

2008 The Border
2009 Eleventh Hour
Merry Madagascar
2009 - Present The Vampire Diaries