Nina Dobrev (born Nikolina Konstantinova Dobreva; January 9, 1989) is a Bulgarian Canadian actress and model. Nina Dobrev was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, as Nikolina Konstantinova Dobreva, and moved to Canada at the age of two, where she was raised in Toronto, Ontario. She speaks fluent English and Bulgarian. She has an older brother, Aleksandar Dobrev (b. 1985). Her father, Konstantin Dobrev, is a computer specialist and her mother, Mihaela Dobreva (née Radeva), is an artist.
Dobrev attended J. B. Tyrrell Sr. Public School, where she started ballet and jazz classes, and competed in rhythmic gymnastics. Then, she attended the arts program at Wexford Collegiate School for the Arts in Scarborough, Ontario, and Ryerson University in Toronto, majoring in sociology. She left in 2008 to pursue her acting career. She took acting classes at Armstrong Acting Studios in Toronto.