Daniela Ruah

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

    Ruah was born in Boston to Portuguese parents, where her father was a surgeon and her mother an otologist. When Ruah was 5, the family moved back to Portugal, where she attended an English-language school and, at 16, began acting in telenovelas. She won a Portuguese-television dance competition.

    Ruah moved to England at 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.

    Her heritage is Jewish, both Sephardic and Ashkenaz. Her father is of Portuguese-Moroccan Jewish ancestry and her mother's family were Russian-Ukrainian Jews that moved to Portugal.

    Ruah started acting in Portuguese soap operas when she was a teen. Her first acting role came at 16, when she played Sara on the soap opera Jardins Proibidos ("Forbidden Gardens").

    At 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(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.

    Ruah stars as Special Agent Kensi Blye in NCIS: Los Angeles, which first aired on September 22, 2009. In 2011, she portrayed the character in a crossover guest appearance on the series Hawaii Five-0.

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

    On 8 January 2018, it was confirmed that Ruah will 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.

    Ruah and then fiancé David Paul Olsen, the elder brother and stunt double of Ruah's NCIS: Los Angeles co-star Eric Christian Olsen, had son River Isaac Ruah Olsen on December 30, 2013. Six months later, on June 17, 2014, Ruah and Olsen married in Portugal in an interfaith marriage. Olsen is Lutheran. Ruah and Olsen had a second child, daughter Sierra Esther Ruah Olsen, on September 4, 2016.