Daniela Ruah

Actress

Birthday December 2, 1983

Birth Sign Sagittarius

Birthplace Boston, Massachusetts, US

Age 40 years old

Nationality United States

Height 177 cm

#15556 Most Popular

1983

Daniela Sofia Korn Ruah (born December 2, 1983) is an American-Portuguese actress and film director best known for playing NCIS Special Agent Kensi Blye in the CBS police procedural series NCIS: Los Angeles.

Ruah was born in Boston, U.S., to Jewish parents from Portugal, where her mother is an otologist and her father is an ENT surgeon.

When Ruah was 5, the family moved back to Portugal, where she attended St Julian's School and, at 16, began acting in telenovelas.

She won a Portuguese-television dance competition.

Ruah moved to the UK at the age of 18 and earned a Bachelor of Arts in performing arts from London Metropolitan University.

2007

She returned to Portugal where she continued acting, and in 2007 moved to New York City to study at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.

Ruah stated that she grew up in an environment that was both Sephardic and Ashkenazi; her father is of Portuguese-Jewish ancestry, and her mother's Jewish roots are in Russia, Ukraine and Portugal.

She holds both Portuguese and American citizenship.

Ruah started acting in Portuguese soap operas when she was a teen.

She made her acting debut at 16, when she played Sara on the soap opera Jardins Proibidos ("Forbidden Gardens").

At 18, Ruah moved to London to attend college.

After graduation, she returned to Portugal to pursue her acting career.

She was the winner of the celebrity dancing competition Dança Comigo (the Portuguese version of Dancing with the Stars) and got main 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.

2009

Ruah starred as Special Agent Kensi Blye in NCIS: Los Angeles, which first aired on September 22, 2009.

2011

In 2011, she portrayed the character in a crossover guest appearance on the series Hawaii Five-0.

2013

In 2013, Ruah appeared in David Auburn's play Proof at Los Angeles' Hayworth Theatre.

They have 2 children, a son, River Isaac Ruah Olsen (born December 2013), and a daughter, Sierra Esther Ruah Olsen (born September 2016).

2014

Ruah married David Olsen, the older brother and stunt double of Ruah's NCIS: Los Angeles co-star Eric Christian Olsen, in an interfaith ceremony in 2014.

Olsen is Lutheran.

2018

On January 8, 2018, it was confirmed that Ruah would co-host the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal alongside Catarina Furtado, Sílvia Alberto and Filomena Cautela.

Ruah has a distinguishable birthmark in her right eye, called the nevus of Ota.