Daniela Ruah

 Daniela Sofia Korn Ruah (born December 2, 1983) is an American-Portuguese actor and film director who is best recognized for her role as NCIS Special Agent Kensi Blye on the CBS police procedural television show NCIS LA Angeles.Ruah was born in Boston, U.S., to Jewish parents from Portugal and her mother works as an otologist while 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 i 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.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.