Ziva David is a fictional character from the CBS television series NCIS, portrayed by actress Cote de Pablo. Ziva first appeared in the season 3 premiere episode, "Kill Ari ", and became a regular cast member from the episode "Silver War". She replaced Caitlin "Kate" Todd, who was killed at the hands of Ziva's half-brother, Ari Haswari, in the season 2 finale. Following the onscreen death of the character's father in season 10, Gabi Coccio recurrently portrayed a young Ziva in flashbacks.
Ziva David is a fictional character from the CBS television series NCIS, portrayed by actress Cote de Pablo. Ziva first appeared in the season 3 premiere episode, "Kill Ari ", and became a regular cast member from the episode "Silver War". She replaced Caitlin "Kate" Todd, who was killed at the hands of Ziva's half-brother, Ari Haswari, in the season 2 finale. Following the onscreen death of the character's father in season 10, Gabi Coccio recurrently portrayed a young Ziva in flashbacks.
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Ziva David (; Hebrew: זיוה דוד, pronounced [ˈziva daˈvid], feminine form of Ziv: "Radiance"; birth date November 12, 1982, Beersheba in the Negev desert of southern Israel) is a fictional character from the CBS television series NCIS, portrayed by actress Cote de Pablo. Ziva first appeared in the season 3 premiere episode, "Kill Ari (Part 1)", and became a regular cast member from the episode "Silver War". She replaced Caitlin "Kate" Todd (Sasha Alexander), who was killed at the hands of Ziva's half-brother, Ari Haswari (Rudolf Martin), in the season 2 finale. Following the onscreen death of the character's father in season 10, Gabi Coccio recurrently portrayed a young Ziva in flashbacks.
Ziva is introduced to the show as an Israeli citizen, an agent of the Kidon unit of the Mossad, a daughter of Mossad Director Eli David, and a friend of NCIS Director Jenny Shepard. She was assigned to NCIS as a liaison officer in an arrangement between Eli and Jenny, a position she held for four years until she returned to Mossad in the season 6 finale, "Aliyah". After being captured by terrorists in Somalia while on assignment for Mossad and presumed dead, she was eventually saved by Gibbs, Tony, and McGee, who brought her back to America. These events led to her resigning from Mossad, applying to become an NCIS agent, and being sworn in as a U.S. citizen.
On July 10, 2013, CBS Television Studios announced that Cote de Pablo would be leaving NCIS during season 11. That fall, De Pablo appeared in two episodes as a series regular to wrap up her character's storyline. In season 13, Ziva was apparently killed off screen, though executive producer and show runner Gary Glasberg suggested that she might still be alive. In season 16, Ziva was confirmed to still be alive, and De Pablo returned in season 17 as a guest star for several episodes.
Outside of fiction, the cultural impact of Ziva became a subject of discussion among various critics, with academics and rabbis weighing in on the matter. Newspapers such as The Jerusalem Post cited her as the only full-time Israeli character on an American mainstream network television show, and Harvard preceptor Eitan Kensky identified her as the "most prominent televisual Israeli" in the United States. Her depiction was generally praised for exposing the Western public to Israeli society and culture, its positive portrayal of an Israeli, and its "cheerleading for American ties to Israel". The role made de Pablo the second most popular actress on U.S. primetime television in 2013, according to Q Score, and a 2013 study by E-Poll Market Research listed her among the top 10 most appealing celebrities in America.
Childhood and early years in Mossad
Born in Be'er Sheva, Israel on November 12, 1982, Ziva is one of three children fathered by the fictional Mossad Director Eli David, the other two being Ari, an older half brother, and Tali, a younger
Sasha Alexander's character Kate Todd was killed in the second NCIS season finale following Alexander's decision to permanently leave the show. Shortly afterwards, series creator Donald Bellisario announced plans to replace Todd with another female lead. At the time, he stated that the new character would be "quite different" from the previous and of an undecided foreign nationality—"I want to go for a European or Australian girl who is very comfortable with her femininity and sexuality."
Before joining the cast of NCIS, Cote de Pablo, who lived in New York at the time, had performed primarily in the theatre. She was intended to portray one of the lead female roles in a 2005 Broadway musical version of The Mambo Kings and had turned down other television roles to stay with it. However, the production was cancelled in June after a trial engagement in San Francisco and two days later de Pablo was asked to audition for a role on NCIS.
De Pablo later said that the character was simply described as a generic eastern European woman and that she had used a Czech accent when auditioning. Over 50 actresses reportedly auditioned for the role, and another actress with a longer résumé had initially been the frontrunner. During a screen test, de Pablo and other actresses were paired with Michael Weatherly, who went offscript by brushing her hair back and commenting, "You remind me of Salma Hayek." De Pablo described her response as follows: "I dismissed him completely. My primary thought was, 'Don't let this guy get physically close to you.' And, at that moment, everybody in the room started laughing and thought it was the funniest thing in the world because the chemistry between the two characters was perfect." Co-executive producer Charles Floyd Johnson remarked that de Pablo won the role of Ziva for her reaction to Weatherly's departure from the script, saying, "When you get actors who really listen and respond organically in the moment to what they're hearing, sometimes magic happens. They really seemed to get that immediately, and that doesn't always happen."
The character's nationality was changed to Israeli after de Pablo was cast. She was also rewritten as a Mossad agent and Ari Haswari's half-sister, with creators originally planning for her to be Interpol or Royal Australian Navy. De Pablo later added, "I was one of the last to audition, and I don't think they had a clear idea of what they wanted. So I interpreted Ziva as a cool, competent woman, not the usual Hollywood sex symbol with big boobs, but [someone] who was comfortable in her own sexuality and used to working with men on an equal footing. It helped that by my looks, I could be taken for almost any nationality." She has also said that Ziva is based on an Israeli woman that she had known prior to joining the series.
Producers cast child actress Gabi Coccio, then aged 13, to portray a young Ziva for a flashback in the tenth season episode "Shiva" in 2013. According to Coccio's father, this was "her first national appearance and first on a show like this". She reprised the role later that season in "Berlin", this time appearing in several flashbacks. During the show's summer hiatus, she confirmed via Twitter that she would appear again in the eleventh season.
