Daniella Kertesz (דניאלה קרטס; March 11, 1989) is an Israeli actress.

She is best known for her role as "Segen" in the 2013 film World War Z. She also stars in the role of Onie in the psychological thriller/horror movie feature film AfterDeath, set to come out in 2015.

Biography

Kertesz was born in Ramat HaSharon, Israel. Her father, Gabriel Kertesz, came to Israel at age nine from Transylvania, and is an architect known for developing and preserving neighborhoods such as Yemin Moshe and Mishkenot Sha'ananim in Jerusalem, Hameyasdim Street in Zichron Yaakov, and the aqueduct in Caesarea. Her mother, Dorothy, was born in Belgium and came to Israel at age 20, was an English teacher, and owned the Ariel Art Gallery in Jerusalem in the 1980s, and comes from a family of diamond dealers and Holocaust survivors. She is the youngest child in her family. Her father was in an anti-aircraft unit in the Israeli Defense Forces, and her brother is a Cobra pilot.

Kertesz spent her childhood growing up in Yemin Moshe in Jerusalem. She moved to Tel Aviv when she was 14 years old.

Kertesz originally was an avid dancer, studying dance from age three and attending the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance. But her last summer living in Jerusalem, before she was to enter ninth grade, while visiting her brother in Tel Aviv she met a casting director in the stairwell of his building, and the casting director offered her an audition for a new television series. She was given the part, and her first appearance was in the Israeli television series Reds (Adumot), created by brothers Uri Barbash and Benny Barbash, at the age of 14. She was the main character Noa Sperling, a 15-year-old soccer player who creates a girls-only team after being kicked off the boys' team. The show aired for two seasons.

She then had small roles in two series in 2007, Screenz and Custody (Mishmoret), created by Irit Linur, in which she played Tamar, the young daughter of a twice-divorced father.
Kertesz then acted in "Masks," a drama series on the Yes satellite network about relationships in a video chat room, playing a soldier caught up in a destructive love affair with a Russian student living in New York.

Kertesz came to greater prominence playing in 13 episodes of the 2008 Israeli Channel 10 series The Naked Truth (Ha-Emet Ha’Eroma) as missing 17-year-old Hagar Ben David. That year she also played Avia, an innocent girl, in Israel Channel 10’s Loving Anna ( "Le'ehov et anna").

Kertesz is best known for her role as "Segen" (a word literally meaning "deputy," but translated accurately as "lieutenant"), a junior officer in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) assigned to protect Brad Pitt's character's life, in the 2013 film World War Z. She auditioned for the part in Tel Aviv, and then in Malta with director Marc Forster and the producers.

She also stars in the role of Onie in the psychological thriller/horror movie feature film AfterDeath, set to come out in early 2015.