Azra Akın

Azra Akın — Biography

Azra Akın Koru was born on 8 December 1981 in Almelo, Netherlands, to a father from Uşak who had played football for Eskişehirspor before working as a translator, and a mother from Afyonkarahisar who taught school; the family settled in the Netherlands in 1971, and Akın has a younger sister, Doruk. She trained in ballet, painting and music as a child and was named Turkey's Elite Model in 1998.

In 2002 she was crowned Miss Turkey, then went on to win Miss World the same year at a pageant relocated from Nigeria to London after protests; she became the first Turkish winner since Keriman Halis in 1932. In 2003 she won a gold medal on the British reality show The Games, and in 2010 she won the Turkish dance competition Yok Böyle Dans.

Turning to acting, she gained wide popularity as Eylül in the 2004 series Yağmur Zamanı, starred in the Snow White adaptation Anlat İstanbul, and later appeared in Geniş Aile, M.U.C.K., Poyraz Karayel and Her Şey Mümkün.

In 2017 she married dancer and model Atakan Koru; the couple has two children.