After more than 20 years on television, “NCIS” has surely made an impression on audiences everywhere. “And I didn’t know how massive it was until I started traveling abroad,” actress Cote de Pablo, who played Ziva David, told American Latino. “People are invested in these characters.”
Long before de Pablo ever found fame on the iconic drama, she was growing up in South America and had never dreamed of acting — even though show business was in her blood. Her mother was a late night talk show host in Chile, so it would only make sense that de Pablo would soon find herself on television, too.
Many fans know de Pablo as Special Agent Ziva David from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. “But my real name is María José de Pablo Fernández Chicharro Grace,” she revealed. There’s probably a lot of other things you never knew about her stunning transformation in the spotlight either.
Cote de Pablo spent most of her childhood in Chile
When Cote de Pablo was 10 years old, her mother got a call that would change both of their lives forever. She was offered a job to host a television show in Miami, Florida – which meant de Pablo and her two siblings had to pack up their bags and leave their hometown of Santiago, Chile.
“I missed my country and my friends terribly,” de Pablo admitted, recalling when she arrived in the U.S. during an interview with Prevention. There was one reason in particular that made the move especially difficult, too. “It wasn’t till I got to the United States that I learned to speak English,” the actress admitted.
Luckily, she quickly found a place for herself at her performing arts high school. “I had always been interested in the arts, but performing became even more important because it was a way to communicate with people in my new country,” de Pablo said — and it was also what would eventually help send her off into stardom.
She followed in her mother’s famous footsteps
As Cote de Pablo’s mother was busy making moves with her new talk show, the world of entertainment began taking notice of her young daughter, too. After a producer saw a photo of de Pablo on her mother’s desk, he asked if the teenager would be interested in being on television.
At the time, de Pablo had no interest in ever appearing on the small screen, as she told Univision.com – yet, producers wouldn’t stop asking.
Eventually, de Pablo agreed to come in to screen test to be a host for the Spanish-speaking magazine show “Control.” As soon as casting directors saw her, she was immediately offered the job alongside Carlos Ponce. She was just 14 years old.
“I interviewed some pretty phenomenal people on that show in the Latin world,” she explained on American Latino. It was then, presumably, that the performing bug bit her hard. “If I could make a living by singing and acting and doing musicals, that’s what I wanted to do,” she told Carnegie Mellon Today.
Stayed Tuned for more updates on Cote De Pablo’s transformation over the years