Shortly after Cote de Pablo was born in Chile her family moved to the USA. Raised in Miami Florida, Cote attended the Miami Arvida Middle School, and then moved on to Pittsburgh to attend the Carnegie Mellon University. While at Carnegie Mellon, Cote appeared in several theater programs, including “The House of Bernarda Alba,” “Cloud Techtonics,” “Indiscretions,” “The Fantasticks,” “And The World Goes 'Round” and “A Little Night Music.” Cote graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 2000, after studying music theater. In 2001, Cote appeared on the New York City Public Theater stage in
Measure for Measure. In 2004, Cote starred in the short-lived FOX series
The Jury Marguerite Cisneros. In 2005, Cote made her Broadway debut in the musical
The Mambo Kings as Dolores Fuentes, and joined the cast of the CBS series
NCIS as Ziva David.