CBS Watch Magazine did a feature on Nina.

It’s called “having a moment.” The Vampire Diaries’ Nina Dobrev arrived at the red carpet of the 63rd Emmy Awards on Sept. 18 and stood serenely before the wall of photographers, her crimson strapless gown—all dangerous curves and soft flounces—a jaw- dropper, hair and makeup impeccable. Just like that, a new It girl was born, and the 22-year-old actress’s life would never be the same.

“Nina is the girl next door, but at the same time she’s enviably gorgeous and has really come into her own, fashion-wise,” says Danielle Nussbaum, entertainment editor of Teen Vogue (which put Dobrev on the April cover). “She topped all the best- dressed lists rocking that uber-glam red Donna Karan dress at the Emmys, and her street style is cool and casual. Also, it helps that she’s accessible. She tweets [Dobrev has more than 1 million followers], she talks to fans and she is genuinely BFF with her castmates. Nina’s the friend you want and the friend you’d want to be.”

She’s got the boyfriend all the girls want as well— Dobrev and co-star Ian Somerhalder, who plays vampire Damon Salvatore, came out as a couple on that same Emmy red carpet.
On her way to the Georgia-based set where Vampire Diaries is filming its third season, Dobrev sounds happy if a little tired. “We’ll be working till 5 or 6 this morning, basically till the sun comes up,” she says. Playing both Elena, the show’s starry-eyed orphan protagonist, and Katherine, Elena’s Civil War-era vampire doppelgänger, means that Dobrev pulls double duty at work. Is that fair? “Not everything in life is fair,” she says, “but it keeps me on my toes.”

She no doubt learned about hard work from home:Dobrev’s family immigrated to Canada from Bulgariawhen she was just 2 years old. “We started from absolutely nothing and lived very, very, very modestly,” she says, noting that her father worked in a pizza parlor and at a gas station just to get by. (The family also continued to speak Bulgarian in the house, which worked out well for the Vampire Diaries writers—Katherine now speaks Bulgarian on the show.) After enrolling in a performing arts high school—“It’s where I discovered I was the happiest while acting,” she says—Dobrev started auditioning, and in 2006 landed a part on Degrassi: The Next Generation.

If Degrassi felt like an extension of her own high school experience, moving to L.A. and getting the part on Vampire Diaries was like starting the next chapter for Dobrev. “It felt like I was growing up,” she says. “The show is about life and death and love and being independent and growingup. It feels like as I grow as a person, my roles and my characters grow with me.”

The next frontier? Feature films. Dobrev recently wrapped a part in The Perks of Being a Wallflower alongside Emma Watson and Paul Rudd, and says she plans to keep trying to do films when on break from the show. And if she’s tired, Dobrev doesn’t forget it’s worth it. “I definitely step back and look at my life at different stages and really appreciate how wonderful it all is and, really, just how lucky I am.”
As Nussbaum notes, “She plays not one but two characters—one sweet and serious and the other a total badass—who are in a huge love triangle with television’s hottest vampires. What’s not to love?” We agree.