Biography for
Ziva David (Character)
from "Navy NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service" (2003)

Ziva is a Mossad liason officer from Israel between Mossad and NCIS. So far, it's been confirmed she speaks at least 9 different languages; English, Arabic, Turkish, Spanish, Italian, Russian, French, Hebrew and German. She came to NCIS in the third season (Kill Ari: Part 1; Kill Ari: Part 2) as a Mossad officer to stop Gibbs from killing Ari. ("I'd wish you luck, but I want that bastard dead, too" -DiNozzo). She becomes a full-time NCIS agent in the season three episode "Silver War". Ziva is then the main suspect of murder when a suspect dies in her custody (and in an elevator).

A native of Israel, Ziva is perhaps best known for having a general lack of understanding for American culture. She frequently messes up common American phrases and mispronounces slang. She sleeps with a gun under her pillow, and in the episode Under Covers we learn that she snores quite loudly. She is jewish, and her faith appears to be quite important to her, as she is always wearing a Star of David and has said before she would "rather die than remove it."

As season six comes to a close, Ziva is in a relationship with a Mossad agent Michael Rivkin. Tony does not approve of Rivkin because he believes Michael killed a secret service agent. When Tony goes to Ziva's apartment to talk to her about his concerns, he finds Rivkin, and the two exchange harsh words and eventually come to blows. Tony kills Michael in self defense. Ziva is not convinced it is self defense and is heartbroken by the death of Michael. In the finale, Alyiah, Tony, Gibbs, The Director, and Ziva go to Israel to visit with the Mossad. Ziva decides to stay and finish Michael Rivkin's duties as suggested by her father, the director of Mossad. The final shot of the season is of Ziva, severely beaten and tied to a chair being ordered to tell everything she knows about NCIS.

In the season 7 premiere, Truth or Consequences, it is revealed that after a ship Ziva was traveling on sank by the Horn of Africa, Ziva was tortured for information about NCIS by Saleem Ulman, an educated man running a terrorist cell in Somalia, Africa. Special Agents McGee, Dinozzo, and Gibbs formed a rescue mission and successfully brought her back to D.C. Ziva, no longer on speaking terms with her father, resigned from Mossad and sought a job as a full-fledged NCIS agent. This was granted in the episode Good Cop, Bad Cop after she revealed what really happened to her during her time away from NCIS. Now back on good terms with everyone on the team, including Tony, she is currently in the process of becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States.