Nina Dobrev: pay gap with male leads influenced The Vampire Diaries

Nina Dobrev says she was paid significantly less than her male co‑stars during her run on the CW’s The Vampire Diaries, a discrepancy that she says affected storylines, her departure and her eventual return for the series finale. Dobrev, who played lead Elena Gilbert and the show’s other principal female role, recalled the disputes in a newly released oral history of the series and described how the studio’s resistance to pay parity shaped creative and contractual decisions behind the scenes.

Dobrev told authors she, Candice King and Kat Graham were the lowest paid series regulars in the show’s first two seasons, even though her contract specified only Elena while she spent much of the run also portraying Katherine Pierce. That doubled her time on set and her line load, she said, and prompted her to press for higher compensation when cast negotiations began in season three. She received a raise but, she said, never reached parity with male leads Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder.

According to accounts from the show’s creators included in the oral history, the studio pushed back. Writers were reportedly told to stop featuring Katherine because paying Dobrev for the additional role...