Cote de Pablo Biography

Mara Jos de Pablo Fernndez, better known as Cot de Pablo (born November 12, 1979), is a Chilean-American actress and singer. Born in Santiago, Chile, she moved to the United States at the age of 10, where she studied acting.

De Pablo co-hosted episodes of the Latin American talk show Control with former Entertainment Tonight host, Carlos Ponce, at the age of 15 before attending Carnegie Mellon University to study music and theatre. After appearing in a number of television roles, she was cast to portray main character Ziva David in the CBS television series NCIS in 2005. De Pablo won an ALMA Award for the role in 2011, and NCIS became the most watched television program in the United States during season 10 (2012-13).

She performed a portion of Tom Waits' song "Temptation" for a 2008 episode of NCIS. Outside of the series, she has acted as a vocalist for songs in Roberto Pitre's Vivo En Vida CD.

Early life

De Pablo was born in Santiago, Chile, to Francisco de Pablo and Mara Olga Fernndez. She has a younger sister, Andrea, and a brother, Francisco, who works as a disc jockey. When de Pablo was 10 years old, her mother, Mara Olga Fernndez, took a job in Miami, Florida, at a Spanish-language television network. There, de Pablo attended Arvida Middle School and New World School of the Arts, where she studied musical theatre. In the fifth grade, she found many people could not properly pronounce her first name of "Mara Jos", so she asked them to call her "Cot", a common Chilean nickname for Mara Jos. De Pablo attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she studied music and theater and appeared in several plays, including And the World Goes 'Round, The House of Bernarda Alba, Indiscretions, The Fantasticks, and A Little Night Music. She graduated in 2000 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theater.

Acting career

Early roles

Cote de Pablo first began working in the entertainment industry at age 15, when she hosted some episodes of the talk show Control (1994-95) on Univision, alongside former Entertainment Tonight host Carlos Ponce.

After graduation, she moved to New York City to find work as an actress, working as a waitress in an Indian restaurant in Manhattan and an Italian eatery in Brooklyn to support herself. She picked up parts in the New York City Public Theater, on the TV show All My Children, and in commercials. De Pablo played the role of Marguerite Cisneros in The Jury (broadcast on the Fox Network). The show was short-lived, screening only 10 one-hour episodes. In 2005, De Pablo was about to make her Broadway debut in The Mambo Kings as Dolores Fuentes, but the show closed after a short trial run in San Francisco.

NCIS

Cote de Pablo is primarily known for her portrayal of Ziva David, an Israeli Mossad officer turned NCIS agent, in the police procedural drama NCIS. She had sent in a videotape audition while waiting for The Mambo Kings to move forward and was asked to fly to Los Angeles for a screen test two days after it was cancelled. Network executives arranged for her to act alongside series regular Michael Weatherly to test for chemistry during her second audition; he went offscript by brushing her hair back and commenting, "You remind me of Salma Hayek". De Pablo's response to Weatherly was to stay in character and she "dismissed him completely". Afterwards, producer Donald Bellisario met with her as she was waiting for a cab to take her back to the airport, telling her she had landed the part.

De Pablo described the character as "someone completely different from anyone else on the show because she's been around men all her life; she's used to men of authority. She's not afraid of men."

In 2006, she won an Imagen Award at the Imagen Foundation Awards for Best Supporting Actress in Television for NCIS. In 2008 and 2009, she was nominated for the same award. Also in 2008 and 2009, she was nominated for an ALMA Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Television Series. In 2011, de Pablo was nominated once again for an Imagen Award, but this time it was for Best Actress in Television, not Supporting Actress. She won the 2011 ALMA Award for Favorite Television Actress-Leading Role in Drama.

On July 10, 2013, it was reported by CBS that de Pablo would be leaving NCIS for undisclosed reasons, although she remained on long enough to conclude her character Ziva David's storyline at the beginning of season 11. De Pablo later told Cindy Elavsky that Ziva could come back because she did not die.

After NCIS

In January 2014, de Pablo was announced to have been cast in the film The 33, about the 2010 Copiap mining accident, as the wife of one of the miners. She was also cast in the 2015 CBS miniseries, titled The Dovekeepers, based on the Alice Hoffman novel. In March 2016, Deadline.com reported de Pablo is slated to return to series television as Laura Kale in Syfy's thriller-drama, "Prototype", pending negotiations.

Prototype

In April 2016, TVLine columnist Matt Mitovich confirmed Cote's return to series television.

The show will "three unlikely cohorts "? two of them played by de Pablo and Jack Davenport "? who inadvertently stumble upon an invention that challenges the very nature of quantum physics - a discovery which in turn puts their lives in grave danger."

J. R. Bourne will play de Pablo's husband.

Music

De Pablo performed a portion of Tom Waits' song "Temptation" on the NCIS episode, "Last Man Standing", which first aired in the U.S. on September 23, 2008. Her full performance of the song, including some lyrics in French, appears for the first time on NCIS: The Official TV Soundtrack, which was released on February 10, 2009.

She is also the singer in Roberto Pitre's Vivo en vida where she sings "Samba in Prelude" and "Cry Me a River".

Cote was also featured on The 33 (film) official soundtrack, singing Gracias a la Vida.

Personal life

De Pablo was in a long-term relationship with actor Diego Serrano, but they were reported as having broken up in June 2015. As a consequence of kickboxing during scenes, de Pablo was injured several times on NCIS, including injuring her neck and back. She currently lives in Los Angeles.

Filmography

Film and television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994-95	Control	Co-host	TV series
2000	The $treet	Fiona	Episode: "Hostile Makeover"
2001	The Education of Max Bickford	Gina	Episode: "Do It Yourself"
2002	TOCA Race Driver	Melanie Sanchez (voice)	Video game
2004	The Jury	Marguerite Cisneros	10 episodes
2005-13	NCIS	Ziva David	190 episodes
2010	The Last Rites of Ransom Pride	Bruja
2015	The 33	Jessica Vega
	The Dovekeepers	Shirah	Miniseries

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Work	Result	Ref.
2006	Imagen Awards	Best Supporting Actress in Television	NCIS
2008
	ALMA Awards	Outstanding Actress in a Drama Television Series
2009
	Imagen Awards	Best Supporting Actress in Television
2011		Best Actress in Television
	ALMA Awards	Favorite Television Actress - Leading Role in a Drama
2012		Favorite TV Actress-Drama