Cote de Pablo | |
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 De Pablo in 2025 | |
| Born | María José de Pablo Fernández (1979-11-12)November 12, 1979 (age 46) Santiago, Chile |
| Education | Carnegie Mellon University (BFA) |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1994–present |
| Known for | Ziva David onNCIS andNCIS: Tony & Ziva |
María José de Pablo Fernández[1] (born November 12, 1979),[2] known professionally asCoté de Pablo, is a Chilean-American actress. Born inSantiago, 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 showControl with formerEntertainment Tonight hostCarlos Ponce at the age of 15 before attendingCarnegie Mellon University to study music and theater. After appearing in a number of television roles, she was cast to portray main characterZiva David in theCBS television seriesNCIS in 2005 and won anALMA Award for the role in 2011.
She was born on November 12, 1979 inSantiago, Chile,[3] to Francisco de Pablo and María Olga Fernández.[4][5] She has a younger sister,[6] Andrea, and a brother, Francisco, who works as a DJ.[7] When de Pablo was 10 years old, her mother took a job in Miami, Florida, at aSpanish-language television network. While there, de Pablo attendedArvida Middle School andNew World School of the Arts, where she studied musical theater. In the fifth grade, she found many people could not pronounce her first name of "María José", so she asked them to call her "Coté", a common Chilean nickname for María José.[8] De Pablo attendedCarnegie Mellon University inPittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she studied drama and appeared in several plays, includingAnd the World Goes 'Round,The House of Bernarda Alba,Indiscretions,The Fantasticks, andA Little Night Music. She graduated in 2000 with aBachelor of Fine Arts in Drama.[9]
De Pablo began working in the entertainment industry at age 15, when she hosted some episodes of the talk showControl (1994–95) onUnivision, alongside formerEntertainment Tonight hostCarlos Ponce.[10]
After graduation, she moved to New York City to find work as an actress, working as a waitress in an anItalian eatery inBrooklyn and doing babysitting to support herself. In 2000, she had roles inFox'sThe $treet and theCBS-dramaThe Education of Max Bickford.[11] She picked up parts in theNew York City Public Theater, on the TV showAll My Children, and in commercials. De Pablo played the role of Marguerite Cisneros inThe Jury (broadcast on theFox Network). The show was short-lived, screening only 10 one-hour episodes. In 2005, De Pablo was about to make her Broadway debut inThe Mambo Kings[12] as Dolores Fuentes, but the show closed after a short trial run in San Francisco.[6]
De Pablo is primarily known for her portrayal ofZiva David, an IsraeliMossad officer turned NCIS agent, in thepolice procedural dramaNCIS. She had submitted a videotape audition while waiting forThe Mambo Kings to move forward and was asked to fly to Los Angeles for a screen test two days after it was canceled.[6][13] Network executives arranged for her to act alongside series regularMichael Weatherly to test for chemistry during her second audition; he went off script by brushing her hair back and commenting, "You remind me ofSalma Hayek". De Pablo's response to Weatherly was to stay in character and she "dismissed him completely". Afterward, producerDonald P. 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.[13][14]
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."[15]
In 2006, she won anImagen Award at theImagen Foundation Awards for Best Supporting Actress in Television forNCIS. In 2008 and 2009, she was nominated for the same award. Also in 2008 and 2009, she was nominated for anALMA 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 leavingNCIS for undisclosed reasons, although she remained long enough to conclude her character Ziva David's storyline at the beginning ofseason 11.[16] Later, in a 2016Q&A session, de Pablo stated that part of the reason why she left the show was because of the direction of her character's arc and feeling that the scripts were not good enough to make her stay.[17]
de Pablo later told Cindy Elavsky that Ziva could come back because she did not die.[18] However, in the season 13 finale of the series, it was stated that her character had apparently died in an explosion in Israel.[19]
Three years later in 2019,season 16 episode 'She', revealed that Ziva is alive and has gone into hiding off-screen. De Pablo made a surprise unannounced return to the show in the last scene of the season 16 finale, which aired on May 21, 2019, in which Ziva arrives at Gibbs' basement to warn him that his life is in danger. Producers confirmed that de Pablo would appear in the first two episodes of the show's 17th season and then in the season's tenth and eleventh episodes as part of her storyline.
In 2014, de Pablo was cast in the filmThe 33, about the2010 Copiapó mining accident, as the wife of one of the miners.[20] She was also cast in the 2015 CBS miniseriesThe Dovekeepers, based on theAlice Hoffman novel.[21] In March 2016,Deadline Hollywood reported de Pablo is slated to return to series television as Laura Kale inSyfy's thriller-drama,Prototype, pending negotiations.[22] In April 2016, TVLine columnist Matt Mitovich confirmed de Pablo's return to series television.[23] The show was to feature "three unlikely colleagues—two of them played by de Pablo andJack Davenport—who inadvertently stumble upon an invention that challenges the very nature ofquantum physics—a discovery which in turn puts their lives in grave danger."[24] In August 2016,Deadline reported that Syfy passed on the show.[25]
On August 28, 2018Deadline announced that de Pablo and formerNCIS castmateMichael Weatherly would be the executive producers of the upcoming CBS detective dramaMIA, written by Shepard Boucher; however the series did not proceed to production.[26]
In 2024, it was announced that de Pablo would reprise her role as Ziva David with on-screen love interest Michael Weatherly reprising his role as Tony DiNozzo in a newNCIS spin-off series calledNCIS: Tony & Ziva onParamount+.[27][28]
In September 2025, the first three episodes ofTony & Ziva were made available on streaming services.[29]
De Pablo performed a portion ofTom Waits' song "Temptation" on theNCIS episode "Last Man Standing", which first aired in the United States on September 23, 2008. Her full performance of the song, including some lyrics in French, appears onNCIS: The Official TV Soundtrack, which was released on February 10, 2009.
She is the singer in Roberto Pitre'sVivo en vida where she sings "Samba in Prelude" and "Cry Me a River".[30] De Pablo was also featured onThe 33's official soundtrack, singing "Gracias a la Vida".[31]
De Pablo was in a long-term relationship with actorDiego Serrano as of 2010[update],[32] but the relationship ended in June 2015.[33]
In 2025, Cote de Pablo shared that she recently has become a mother.[34]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994–1995 | Control | Co-host | Latin-American magazine show |
| 2000 | The $treet | Fiona | Episode: "Hostile Makeover" |
| 2001 | The Education of Max Bickford | Gina | Episode: "Do It Yourself" |
| 2004 | The Jury | Marguerite Cisneros | 10 episodes |
| 2005–2013, 2019–2020 | NCIS | Ziva David | Guest role (season 3,16) Main role (season 3–season 11) Recurring role (season 17, 4 episodes); 194 episodes |
| 2010 | The Last Rites of Ransom Pride | Bruja | |
| 2015 | The 33 | Jessica Vega | |
| 2015 | The Dovekeepers | Shirah | Miniseries |
| 2016 | Prototype | Laura Kale | TV movie, Not Going Forward[35] |
| 2019 | Seneca | Celeste | |
| 2025 | NCIS: Tony & Ziva | Ziva David[36] | Main role; also executive producer |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Off Duty: An NCIS Rewatch Podcast[37] | Self | Co-hosted with Michael Weatherly and includes guest interviews with previous NCIS franchise cast members |
| Year | Title | Voice role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | TOCA Race Driver | Melanie Sanchez |
| Year | Association | Category | Work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Imagen Awards | Best Supporting Actress in Television | NCIS | Won | [4] |
| 2008 | Nominated | [38] | |||
| ALMA Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Drama Television Series | Nominated | [4][39] | ||
| 2009 | Nominated | [40][41] | |||
| Imagen Awards | Best Supporting Actress in Television | Nominated | [42] | ||
| 2011 | Best Actress in Television | Nominated | [43] | ||
| ALMA Awards | Favorite Television Actress—Leading Role in a Drama | Won | [44] | ||
| 2012 | Favorite TV Actress-Drama | Nominated | [45] | ||
| 2016 | Imagen Awards | Best Supporting Actress - Feature Film | The 33 | Won | |
| 2020 | Best Supporting Actress in Television | NCIS | Nominated | [46] |
Actor Cote de Pablo is 45
At a Q&A, de Pablo said that she chose to leave at least in part because of the quality of the series, and the direction of her character's arc. Specifically, she said, the scripts she was reading were not good enough to make her want to stay.
Recién soltera tras varios años de relación con el actor ecuatoriano Diego Serrano
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