Birce Akalay (born 19 June 1984) is a Turkish actress.
Akalay, who had her breakthrough with a role in the TV series Yer Gök Aşk as Havva, has appeared in various TV series and movies to this date. In 2017, she was cast in the famous play 7 Kocalı Hürmüz, directed by Müjdat Gezen.[1] In 2020, she had a leading role in the famous play Keşanlı Ali Destanı and portrayed the character of “Zilha”. At the same time, she continued her career on television with a leading role in Star TV‘s series Babil, which premiered in January 2020.[1]
Life and career[edit]
Akalay was born on 19 June 1984 in Istanbul. She started ballet at the age of four and was injured at the age of sixteen.[2] She graduated from theatre department of Pera Fine Arts High School in 2003.[3] She then enrolled in Istanbul University with a major in theatre analysis but left the school at third grade to pursue her dream of becoming a theatre actress.[3] Since she had reached the age of twenty, she lost the chance to win a place in state conservatory but instead won a seat in Haliç University Conservatory for theatre studies and finished her education there.[3] As of 2020, she is a lecturer at Haliç University’s theatre department, teaching acting courses.[4] In 2004, she competed in Miss Turkey and finished in the 3rd place. Subsequently, she represented her country in Miss Europe.
In 2007, she made her television debut with a supporting role in the hit series Asi.[3] She had her first cinematic role in the same year with a part in the movie Son Ders: Aşk ve Üniversite.[3] She got her first leading role in television with the series Kader, playing the character of Lamia, and was then cast in the series Senin Uğruna in the same year.[3]
After playing supporting roles in Alayına İsyan and Kış Masalı in 2009, her breakthrough came with her role as Havva in 2010 series Yer Gök Aşk, which was well received by critics and fans.[3]
In 2013, she portrayed Ayhan Aydan in historical series Ben Onu Çok Sevdim based on the life of Prime Minister of Turkey Adnan Menderes.[3]
She continued her TV career with roles in child series Küçük Ağa (2014–2015), rom-com Evli ve Öfkeli (2015–2016), youth series Hayat Bazen Tatlıdır (2016–2017) and Siyah Beyaz Aşk (2017–2018).[3] After playing a leading role in the TV series Ağlama Anne in late 2018, she didn’t appear in any productions for 1 year.[5][6]
In the meantime, she started teaching as a lecturer at Haliç University Theater Department and took part in the music program Benimle Söyle as the chief judge.[3] In January 2020, she began portraying İlay in Star TV’s series Babil.[1] Akalay has also continued her career on stage and in 2020 appeared as “Zilha” in the play Keşanlı Ali Destanı.[1] Her cousin, Barış Murat Yağcı, is also an actor.[7]
In 2022, Birce Akalay starred in two Netflix shows, she played as Lale Kıran in Kuş Uçuşu and as Önem Özülkü in Mezarlık.These two series were the first major projects of her and with the help of Netflix’s global audience Birce Akalay’s fame was rapidly increased and 2nd and 3rd seasons of the series are contracted.[8]
