Candice King Bio
Candice Accola King is an American actress best known for her portrayal of Caroline Forbes on The Vampire Diaries and its spin-offs The Originals and Legacies. Born May 13, 1987, in Houston, Texas, she began her professional entertainment career in 2006 and has worked across television, film and music since then.
Early Life and Background
Candice Accola was born to Carolyn Clark Accola and Kevin Accola in Houston, Texas. Her mother worked as an environmental engineer and her father as a cardiothoracic surgeon. She grew up in Edgewood, Florida, and attended Lake Highland Preparatory School in Orlando.
Accola developed an early interest in performance and music, moving between musical projects and auditioning for television roles while still a teenager. Her family background and education in Florida provided the base from which she pursued touring and recording work before focusing increasingly on screen acting.
Path to Celebrity
Accola began her professional career in music, releasing an independent debut album, It’s Always the Innocent Ones, in December 2006 and co-writing the majority of its tracks. The record was later re-released in Japan in 2008, where it achieved greater visibility, and she toured as a backing singer on a major concert tour, appearing in the concert film Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert.
Concurrently she pursued acting, booking guest roles on several television series and small film parts. Those early auditions and guest appearances helped her build the résumé that led to her casting in a regular series role at the end of the 2000s.
Candice King Career
Early Career (2006–2009)
King launched her entertainment career in 2006 with the independent release of her debut album and work as a backing vocalist on a major concert tour. During this period she also began securing small television and film parts, including bit roles and guest appearances that exposed her to casting directors and production teams in Los Angeles.
Her early screen credits include guest appearances on established television shows and a supporting part in the 2009 horror film Deadgirl. She also had a minor role in The Hannah Montana Movie, experiences that bridged her music background and an expanding focus on acting.
Breakthrough (2009–present)
King’s breakthrough came in 2009 when she was cast as Caroline Forbes in the CW supernatural drama The Vampire Diaries. The role became her best-known performance, placing her among the principal ensemble and bringing mainstream recognition through the series’ run. Her portrayal of Caroline Forbes earned her Teen Choice Award nominations and made the character a recurring presence across the series’ broader franchise.
King reprised Caroline Forbes in crossover and guest appearances for related series in the franchise, including The Originals and later Legacies, further cementing the role as a signature credit. Her work on the franchise extended her visibility and led to additional film casting opportunities, including a role announced for the 2020 romance sequel After We Collided in which she was cast as Kimberly.
Notable Works and Milestones
King’s signature work remains her long-running role as Caroline Forbes on The Vampire Diaries and its spin-offs. The part defined her public profile and marked a career milestone by transitioning her from guest roles and supporting parts into a principal series performer with recurring crossover appearances across related series.
Candice King Award Nominations
Across her career, King’s performances on The Vampire Diaries garnered Teen Choice Award nominations. Those nominations reflect the mainstream and youth-oriented recognition associated with the series and its ensemble cast.
Candice King Awards Won
Provided sources do not list major individual awards wins for King. Her career recognition, as verified, centers on nominations tied to her work on The Vampire Diaries and its related projects.
Candice King Family
Candice Accola King is the daughter of Carolyn Clark Accola and Kevin Accola and has one younger brother. Her parents are originally from southern Illinois, while King was raised in Florida after being born in Houston, Texas. Family ties and early life in Florida are a documented part of her background and formative years.
Personal Life
King married musician Joe King of The Fray in October 2014 after an engagement in May 2013; she became stepmother to his two daughters from a prior marriage. The couple had two daughters together, born in January 2016 and December 2020. In May 2022 she filed for divorce and retained the surname King; the marriage is recorded as having ended in 2022.
In December 2023 King confirmed she was dating actor Steven Krueger. The couple announced an engagement in May 2025. Sources provided also report that in December 2025 she announced she was expecting a third child. These events are part of the public record in the supplied material and reflect developments in her family life following her earlier marriage.