| Daniela Ruah | |
|---|---|
| Born | Daniela Sofia Korn Ruah December 2, 1983 Boston, Massachusetts |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 2001–present |
Daniela Sofia Korn Ruah (born December 2, 1983) is an American actress best known for playing NCIS Special Agent Kensi Blye in the CBS series NCIS: Los Angeles.
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Ruah was born in Portugal, the only child of Dr. Moisés Carlos Bentes Ruah and his former wife Catarina Lia Azancot Korn. She has a distinguishable birthmark in her right eye, and her other eye is hazel, giving her eyes a unique appearance as one is brown/blackish and the other is hazel.
Her father was a resident in Otolaryngology (Ear, Nose, and Throat) in the Boston University-Tufts University Program. When Ruah was five years old, her father completed his Residency, and the family returned to Portugal, where the parents divorced and where she spent the rest of her childhood. Her father is of Sephardic Portuguese Jewish descent. Ruah's mother is the daughter of a Sephardi mother, who was born in Portugal, and an Ashkenazi father, who was born (1922) in what is now Wrocław, Poland.
Ruah attended Saint Julian's School in Carcavelos, near Lisbon. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from London Metropolitan University.[1] She was an active member of the Portuguese Jewish community, of which her father's second cousin, also a doctor, is the head. In 2003, the Jewish Telegraph Agency (JTA) ran a piece about an annual gathering of Jewish young people from 32 countries sponsored by European Union of Jewish Students. Ruah, then 19 and still living in Lisbon, was one of the students the JTA interviewed. She said, "I've never been around as many Jews in my entire life. Here, you don't feel the need to explain to people who you are. I am meeting people who eat kosher for the first time ever."[2]
Ruah speaks three languages fluently—Portuguese, English, and Spanish.
Ruah started acting in Portuguese soap operas when she was a teen. Her first acting role came at the age of 16, when she auditioned for the soap opera Jardins Proibidos and won the role of Sara.[3] Ruah kept working on diverse projects while she was finishing high school. At the age of 18, she moved to London to study at the London Metropolitan University, where she earned a First in Performing Arts. Ruah returned to Portugal to pursue her acting career. She was the winner of the celebrity dancing competition Dança Comigo and had principal roles in television series, short films, and theatre. In 2007, she moved to New York to study at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.
Ruah stars as Special Agent Kensi Blye in NCIS: Los Angeles, which premiered on September 22, 2009. Season 2 premiered on September 21, 2010, and airs Tuesdays at 9:00 pm on CBS,[4] following NCIS at 8:00 p.m. Season 3 premiered on September 20th 2011.[5]
In 2010, Ruah won the Golden Globe award for 'Revelation of the Year'. In June 2010, she was nominated for best TV Action female actress in the Teen Choice Awards. Daniela Ruah has been pre-nominated for an Emmy Award in June 2011.[6] Winner of TV Action Icon Award 2011
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