Aslı Aybars

Aslı Aybars — Biography

Alongside her work as a Turkish actress across theatre, television and film, Aslı Aybars also teaches acting and diction. She reached her widest audience as Yasemin in Çağan Irmak's film Issız Adam (Alone), and in 2015 her character Başak in Çilek Kokusu became a talking point on social media.

She grew up in a theatre family: her father, State Theatre artist Nihat Aybars, is described as the first Turkish actor to make and act in films in Hollywood. She studied in the Theatre Department of Mimar Sinan University State Conservatory from 1990 to 1994, where her teachers included Zeliha Berksoy, Müşfik Kenter, Haluk Kurdoğlu and Cihan Ünal. On television she appeared in series such as Benimle Evlenir misin?, Baba, İstanbul Şahidimdir, Avrupa Yakası, Fırtınalı Aşk and Doludizgin Yıllar, and in film she was in Kahpe Bizans and Issız Adam. Working on the city theatre stage, she was nominated in 2006 at the Afife Jale Awards for best musical comedy and in 2019 won the Üstün Akmen Award for best supporting actress of the year.

From 2009 she also worked as a trainer, and in 2011-2013 she completed a master's in advanced acting at Bahçeşehir University. The courses she has given under her own name include diction, breathing and voice work, creative drama and public speaking. She has also moderated and presented at launches and events and, during the pandemic, hosted live guest programmes on Instagram.