Daniela Ruah

Early life and family

Ruah was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Portuguese citizens Dr. Moises Carlos Bentes Ruah and his wife, Katharina Lia Azancot Korn. Her father was a resident in Otolaryngology (Ear, Nose, and Throat) in the Boston University–Tufts University program. When Ruah was five years old, her father completed his residency and the family returned to Portugal, where her parents divorced. She attended an international, English-medium school.

Ruah's father is from a prominent Portuguese Sephardic Jewish family. Ruah's maternal grandfather was an Ashkenazi Jew who was born in 1922 in what is now Wroclaw, Poland. Ruah's maternal grandmother, Vera, was born in Lisbon, Portugal; Vera's father (Ruah's great-grandfather) was of Sephardic Jewish and Spanish ancestry, and Vera's mother (Ruah's great-grandmother) was a Ukrainian Ashkenazi Jew from Odessa. She is the great-grand niece of the captain Artur Carlos de Barros Basto. She also has distant ancestors from Sao Tome and Principe.

Ruah attended St Julian's School in Carcavelos, near Lisbon. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from London Metropolitan University.

She was an active member of the Portuguese Jewish community in Lisbon, of which her father's second cousin, also a physician, was the head. In 2003, the Jewish Telegraph Agency (JTA) ran a piece about an annual gathering of Jewish young people from 32 countries sponsored by European Union of Jewish Students. Ruah, then 19 and still living in Lisbon, was one of the students the JTA interviewed. She said, "I've never been around as many Jews in my entire life. Here, you don't feel the need to explain to people who you are. I am meeting people who eat kosher for the first time ever."

Career

Ruah started acting in Portuguese soap operas when she was a teen. Her first acting role came at the age of 16, when she auditioned for the soap opera Jardins Proibidos ("Forbidden Gardens") and won the role of Sara. Ruah kept working on diverse projects while she was finishing high school. At the age of 18, she moved to London to study at the London Metropolitan University, where she earned a First in Performing Arts. She got extremely good grades while in school, and became the best well known movie and sports star. Ruah returned to Portugal to pursue her acting career. She was the winner of the celebrity dancing competition Danca 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. The series is now on Season 6, which premiered on September 29, 2014. In 2011, Ruah portrayed Kensi Blye in a guest appearance on the series Hawaii Five-0.

In April 2013 Ruah made her debut at Hayworth Theatre in LA as Catherine in "Proof", a play by David Auburn.

Personal life

She has a distinguishable birthmark in her right eye, called the Nevus of Ota. Her left eye is hazel, giving her eyes a unique appearance as the other one is brown/blackish. Ruah speaks three languages fluently—Portuguese, English, and Spanish.

Ruah announced in September 2013 that she was expecting her first child, a boy, with her then fiance David Paul Olsen, the elder brother of and stunt double to Ruah's NCIS: Los Angeles co-star Eric Christian Olsen. Ruah gave birth to a son, River Isaac Ruah Olsen, on Dec 30, 2013. On June 19, 2014, Ruah married her fiance David Olsen in Portugal. She currently lives in Los Angeles, California.