Açelya Özcan

Açelya Özcan — Biography

Açelya Özcan is an actress working across theater, television and film; wide audiences know her above all as Nabat in Dağ 2 and as Ayşe Hatun in the historical series Kuruluş Osman. She also works as a musician and is known as a blog writer and social activist.

She is the daughter of the writer Nurhayat Özcan. While studying business administration at Istanbul University she played on stage Helena in Shakespeare's Midnight in Summer, Alkmene in Haldun Dormen's Amphitrion 2000 and Nina in Chekhov's The Seagull, and she completed basic acting training at Şahika Tekand's theater school. Her first film was Tolga Örnek's Kaybedenler Kulübü (2011). In 2012 she caught the attention of television viewers as İnci in Aşkın Halleri, and the same year she played Lucille in Dormen's staging of Kibarlık Budalası. After Gizem in Kiraz Mevsimi, she made her first comedy appearance as Tomris in Tutar mı Tutar and played Sevcan in Acil Aşk Aranıyor.

In 2016 she played the Turkmen girl Nabat in Dağ 2; the film reached 3.5 million viewers in Turkey and became the year's most-watched, and she was widely taken to be a real Turkmen. After productions such as Çiçero and Bir Kahramanın Rüyası she played the con artist Emel in Avlu. In Kuruluş Osman she was Ayşe Hatun, wife of Gündüz Bey; she left the series ahead of a new season in 2023.