Cote de Pablo was born in Santiago, Chile, but was raised in Miami, Florida. She attended Arvida Middle School in Miami and then Carnegie Mellon University. She graduated in 2000 after studying music theater. Whilst at Carnegie Mellon she appeared in several theater productions, including “Indiscretions”, “The Fantasticks”, “The House of Bernarda Alba”, “And The World Goes ‘Round”, “A Little Night Music” and “Cloud Techtonics”. Her first television role was hosting the 1994 show Control (2000), alongside Entertainment Tonight (1981) host Carlos Ponce.
In 2001 Cote appeared on the New York City Public Theater stage in the Shakespearean play “Measure for Measure”, then moved onto roles on the small screen such as “Gina” in the ABC series The Education of Max Bickford (2001), acting alongside Academy Award-winners Richard Dreyfuss and Marcia Gay Harden, Golden Globe winner Regina Taylor, veteran actress Helen Shaver and Katee Sackhoff. She also had roles in The $treet (2000) and When I Grow Up (1990). In 2004 she starred in the short-lived FOX series The Jury (2004), playing “Marguerite Cisneros”.
In 2005 she played “Dolores Fuentes” in the stage musical “The Mambo Kings” and later was cast as Mossad officer Ziva David in the hit series NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service (2003) alongside Mark Harmon, Michael Weatherly, Pauley Perrette, David McCallum, Sean Murray and Lauren Holly.
As of 2008 she was living in Los Angeles.