Daniela Ruah was born in Boston to Portuguese-born parents and lived in the US until she was five. She attended St. Julian’s School in Portugal where she grew up, landing her first acting role at the age of 16. Two years later, Ruah moved to London and received a BA in Performing Arts at the London Metropolitan University, having finished with first class honors.

Ruah has played the same character (Kensi Blye) in three different series: NCIS (2003), NCIS: Los Angeles (2009) and Hawaii Five-0 (2010). She is currently shooting season 14 of NCIS: Los Angeles, which premieres on October 9, 2022. The series also stars Chris O’Donnell, LL Cool J, Eric Christian Olsen and Gerald McRaney.

During a newly published interview with Smashing Interviews Magazine, Ruah discussed the evolution of her NCIS: Los Angeles character, Kensi Blye:

Smashing Interviews Magazine: You auditioned for the role of Kensi?

Daniela Ruah: Yes. I auditioned when I was still living in New York. Then the callback was in LA, so they flew me out for the studio audition, then the network audition, and the rest is history.

Smashing Interviews Magazine: What’s the best part about playing Kensi?

Daniela Ruah: The best part of playing her is the fact that she’s a flawed human being like anyone is, and she grows from her mistakes. She’s intelligent. She’s fiercely independent, but after all these years, I think she’s grown to understand that it’s okay to emotionally depend on someone else. Her own traumas of losing her dad, not having a present mom, running away from home as a teenager, living on the street for a while, gave her a sense of no one’s going to give anything to you. You’ve got to go for it yourself and depend on yourself.

After meeting Deeks, she evolves into the fact that it’s okay to emotionally depend on someone else. Not everybody’s going to leave you. So, yeah. There’s so much I love about her. At this point, I am her, and she is me getting bad guys and handcuffing people and shooting people (laughs). Taking the professional side away from her profession, we’re very similar human beings at this point. It would be difficult to play the same character for 14 years and not have something in common.

Smashing Interviews Magazine: And you’re happy playing her for as long as it lasts?

Daniela Ruah: Of course! I am so happy. I love the team we have. I love the cast. I love the crew. We’re a family at this point. You break bread with your cast and crew. Crew members were at my wedding. They were there when I met my husband, and they were there when I was pregnant with my kids in season five and eight. They were sending me messages when I had the kids. We’re all very, very close.

Smashing Interviews Magazine: Daniela, let’s talk about the new season of NCIS: Los Angeles. We have Kensi and Deeks fostering Rosa. What kind of parents will they be in this situation?

Daniela Ruah: I think they’re still trying to find their voices as parents and their position as parents as well. I think any first-time parent, including myself, could say you feel pretty insecure in the beginning when you have a baby, like am I feeding it too much? Am I not feeding it enough? But you really get to know that child as they age with you, what food they like and don’t like, what toy they like, what makes them tick.

In this situation, we’ve fostered a teenager, so she’s a full-fledged human with previous experiences, some positive, some negative that we have not been privy to. So they’re just trying to get to know her, but they already love her, and they already want to care for her. Kensi obviously met her under very distressful circumstances, which was trying to pull her out of Mexico where she was under threat. So there’s that added layer of how Kensi got to know her at first. She was her savior essentially, and Rosa was her savior in return because she’s filled this huge gap in her soul of wanting to be a mom even though she spent so many years figuring out that she wanted to be a mom in the first place.

I think Kensi, in particular, is overly worried and maybe overprotective where she should take a step back. I think we’ve all been through something like that in different circumstances. But it has been much more stressful. So I think she’ll find a way to just take a breath and relax. It’s going to be okay.

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About the authors:

Marc Parker is an American journalist, author, artist, a photographer and a computer scientist. He is the founder/publisher/editor-in-chief of Smashing Interviews Magazine. Marc Parker's social media: Twitter Facebook

Melissa Benefield Parker is an American journalist and author. She is the founder/publisher of Smashing Interviews Magazine. Melissa Benefield Parker's social media: Twitter Facebook