Daniela Nieves attends the Miami special screening of Netflix's "Pulse"

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

'Pulse': Daniela Nieves talks filming, personal growth, and her acting journey

Daniela started her career as a child actress

Jovita Trujillo

Senior Writer

APRIL 4, 2025 7:29 PM EDTAPR 4, 2025, 7:29 PM EDT

Venezuelan-American Daniela Nieves is no stranger to high-stakes drama, but Netflix's Pulse takes it to another level. The Every Witch Way and Vampire Academy star plays Camila, a med student thrown into the deep end at Miami’s busiest trauma center—just as a hurricane hits.

Santiago Segura as Gabriel Moreno, Daniela Nieves as Camila Perez and Arturo Del Puerto as Luis Dominguez in Episode 106 of Pulse

With chaos inside and outside the hospital, Camila is figuring out where she belongs, and Nieves couldn’t be more excited for fans to watch her journey unfold. In an exclusive interview with HOLA! USA she told us, "I think what's fun about [Camila] is that everyone else has so much history in the medical field and with each other and in the hospital, but we really see Camila from day one—this is literally the first time she's in this hospital, she's meeting everybody," she shared.

Daniela Nieves shares her experience filming Netflix's 'Pulse

For Nieves, stepping into Camila’s shoes brought back memories of her own big leap—moving to LA at 19. "I packed up my car, moved by myself, found some girls on Facebook, like 'can I live with you">

Chelsea Muirhead as Sophie Chan in Episode 103 of Pulse

The scene involved some serious weather conditions. "It was like this intense rain. Me and Chelsea only had, I think, 1 or 2 days to—no, it was only one day during the hurricane scenes, but they were in tents. We were freezing, and you have to do it so many times and then switch around, so you're doing it all day, getting wet," she recalls.

As for the person she’d call in an emergency? "I would have to say, I know my mom would be butt hurt to hear this, but I would have to say my dad just because my mom gets really nervous, and I think she'd panic," she its with a chuckle. "So I think my dad and I have like a thing where we're like, 'Just keep it between us until we really have to tell her.' So probably my dad."

Daniela Nieves on her journey as a Latina in Hollywood

I think that I grew up feeling very proud of being Venezuelan and that whole culture, and I think it really comes out in the way I speak, the way I express myself." - Nieves

Nieves also opened up about her journey into acting, a journey that started when she was just a child dancer. "When I was younger, I kind of was thrown into it in a way, not really—my parents were like, not stage parents at all," she reflects. "But I started working because the owner of my dance studio worked with Univision. They were like, 'Oh, we need like a little girl to do soap operas, like being in this telenovela.'"

Her confidence at a young age got her the part. "I just had this insane confidence," she says. "I was like, 'Oh, I can do this. I'm the girl. I'm a star. Like, are you kidding me">

Daniela Nieves attends the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Sports Awards 2015 at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion on July 16, 2015

It's a sentiment that’s all too familiar for many, especially in the entertainment world, where staying true to yourself is key. "As an adult, I think it's harder to keep that confidence in yourself, in your abilities, and in what has—what's like your thing, like what's like your personality that you can bring to the industry that's different from other people."

Growing up in Miami, Nieves has always felt a strong connection to her roots. "Being from Miami, I feel like being Latina was like... I don't know. It's just normal. Like, 'Oh, lo Colombiano,' or 'la Venezolana,' whatever," she says. "And it's like, I think that I grew up feeling very proud of being Venezuelan and that whole culture, and I think it really comes out in the way I speak, the way I express myself."

As she’s grown older, she’s realized just how much her heritage impacts how people connect with her. "And as I've gotten older, I've realized that that's what people like about me, and they'll express that to me, like, 'Oh my God, I love how you talk. I love how you do this and that,'" she says. "And so even though it can be hard to hang on to that sometimes, I think that I've been very encouraged—I've been really lucky actually to be really encouraged to hang on to that my whole life, really. So yeah, I love that."

Pulse stars: Arturo Del Puerto, Daniela Nieves, and Nestor Carbonell

Looking ahead, Nieves is manifesting something fun and lighthearted. "I really wanna manifest, and I've been saying this—I wanna do like a really stupid comedy. Something that you're like, 'This is the dumbest movie, but it's so good,' but it's just the craziest things happening and just fun and funny and lighthearted."