When “The Vampire Diaries” debuted in 2009, vampires were all the rage. After all, that was the era of “Twilight” and HBO’s “True Blood,” two properties that dominated popular culture. Naturally, “The Vampire Diaries” fared extremely well, turning into a major series for The CW. For Nina Dobrev, the series was a launchpad that has since gone on to define her career. While Dobrev boasted appearances in the Canadian series “Degrassi: The Next Generation” (which also features Canadian rapper Drake) and in Atom Egoyan’s “Chloe,” it was “The Vampire Diaries” that changed everything for her when she was just 20.
In mid-2015, Dobrev took to Instagram to announce that season six would be her last with “The Vampire Diaries,” marking the end of a chapter. “I always knew I wanted Elena’s story to be a six season adventure, and within those six years I got the journey of a lifetime,” Dobrev wrote to her millions of followers.
In an interview with SELF, Dobrev opened up about how she had signed a six-season contract for the show and was ready to move on. Still, this was a series that she had become synonymous with, and this didn’t escape the actress. “Just like Elena, I started the show as a young girl, and together, we grew up,” Dobrev said in her Choice TV Actress acceptance speech at the Teen Choice Awards in 2015. “We’ve grown up and over the last six years, we’ve become women. These were six incredible years that I’ve had the pleasure of sharing with all of you guys.”
