‘The Vampire Diaries’ season 4: Ian Somerhalder’s birthday celebration is on!

Saturday is a big day for “The Vampire Diaries” … at least when it comes to one of the show’s biggest stars. On Saturday, Ian Somerhalder turned 34 years old, and he has already received quite the impressive birthday present courtesy of his fans.

If you have been active on Twitter throughout the day, then you may know already that one of the Trending Topics on the popular social media site is none other than #HappyBirthdayIanSomerhalder. Is this a surprise? Hardly, given that the actor’s name is constantly featured as a trend even when it is not his birthday. Let this just be a testament to how popular Ian is around the world, and how passion the “Vampire Diaries” fan following is.

So how is Ian spending this holiday? Well, we know courtesy of one Twitter message that he spent the early portion of it hard at work on his hit CW show:

“Shooting till 3am now on a Boeing 777 going to the left coast LaLa for a day of amazing discovery”

Somerhalder and the rest of the cast are already hard at work shooting the second half of their season, which will begin airing early on in the new year. The final season 4 episode of 2012 airs Thursday night, and it should focus on Ian’s character of Damon trying to figure out more than ever how to break the sire bond that Elena has on her. (That is, if he can restrain some of his primal urges.) Ian has also been spending some time this year getting into the holiday spirit with his real-life girlfriend Nina Dobrev, which you can read more about over here.

Have you caught the first promo for “The Vampire Diaries” midseason finale? If not, you can watch it over here.

Photo: The CW