Kayla Ewell

The Risk of Dying Too Soon

Kayla Ewell was the first to disappear when no one expected it on 2009's teen television. Her character in The Vampire Diaries, Vicki Donovan, broke the unwritten rule that good-looking leads are untouchable for at least a season or two. That early on-screen death gave her a prominence few supporting actors manage with so little screen time.

She was born in Long Beach and grew up surfing the beaches of California. She studied dance and singing at the Orange County Song & Dance Company before a talent scout discovered her in a local performance. Her entry into the industry was not a sudden stroke of luck, but the result of years of auditions for smaller projects.

Luck was on her side.

In 2004, she joined the cast of The Bold and the Beautiful to play Caitlin Ramirez. She appeared in more than a hundred episodes and learned the craft of daily television at a breakneck pace. That school of nonstop shoots later allowed her to move on to bigger-budget series like The O.C. or Entourage with barely any technical effort.

And the gamble paid off.

Life Beyond the Spotlight of Mystic Falls

Her exit from the vampire series in 2009 was not due to contract issues but to a narrative need from the writers. Ewell returned intermittently in later years and appeared in special episodes up to the show's finale in 2017. The audience never fully disconnected from the vulnerability she brought to her role as the troubled girl.

In 2018, she launched the podcast Directionally Challenged with her castmate Candice King. The project focused on women in their thirties searching for answers in a work environment that penalizes them for getting older. Ewell has always preferred to control her own narrative rather than wait around for her agent to land her an audition for a TV pilot.

It wasn't all red carpets.

During the filming of The Creatress in 2019, she worked alongside Fran Drescher on a production that explored the limits of literary criticism. The film had a limited budget and a low-profile release on video-on-demand platforms. Still, the experience taught her how independent financing works in Hollywood.

Stats and Shoots in Her Adult Years

She married actor Tanner Novlan in 2015, and together they have built a family with two children born in 2019 and 2022. Raising a family led her to be more selective about her on-screen work to avoid long trips away from Los Angeles. As a result, her most recent projects have focused on TV movies and short-run productions.

In 2022, she appeared in the film The Senior, directed by Rod Lurie. Filming took place in Texas and let her explore a dramatic range far removed from the supernatural dramas that defined her youth. She also stayed on the series Roswell, New Mexico between 2019 and 2022, playing Nora Truman.

Ewell lives on a property in Southern California and manages her own real estate investments. Her contract for the production of 2022 included a specific clause limiting night outdoor shoot days. Filming wrapped three days ahead of schedule due to the local production company's budget concerns.