Ziva David is a fictional character from the CBS television series NCIS, portrayed by actress Cote de Pablo. Ziva first appeared in the season 3 premiere episode, "Kill Ari ", and became a regular cast member from the episode "Silver War". She replaced Caitlin "Kate" Todd, who was killed at the hands of Ziva's half-brother, Ari Haswari, in the season 2 finale. Following the onscreen death of the character's father in season 10, Gabi Coccio recurrently portrayed a young Ziva in flashbacks.

NCIS is an American military police procedural television series and the first installment within the NCIS media franchise. The series revolves around a fictional team of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), combining elements of the military drama and police procedural genres with comedy. The concept and characters were initially introduced with two episodes of the CBS series JAG ; as a spin-off from JAG, the series premiered on September 23, 2003, on CBS. To date, it has entered into the 21st full season and has gone into broadcast syndication on the USA Network. Donald P. Bellisario and Don McGill are co-creators and executive producers of the premiere member of the NCIS franchise. As of 2022, NCIS is the third-longest-running scripted, live-action U.S. prime-time TV series currently airing, surpassed only by Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999–present) and Law & Order ; it is the seventh-longest-running scripted U.S. prime-time TV series overall.