Dilan Derya Zeynilli

Dilan Derya Zeynilli — Biography

Based in London, Turkish actress Dilan Derya Zeynilli moves between television dramas, independent film and children's theater. She broke through internationally in Exodus (Çıkış), a British-Turkish co-production directed by Serkan Nihat, where she plays the lawyer Nîlüfer Bayraktar.

Zeynilli grew up in Istanbul, where her parents signed her up for acting lessons when she was small; a year at the Sadri Alışık Culture Centre followed. Every conservatory audition she sat for led to a place, and she picked Haliç University Conservatory, graduating with a bachelor's degree in theater. While still a student she was offered parts in Fatih and in Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu, a series broadcast in more than thirty countries, and once she had graduated she joined the daily drama Aşkın Bedeli. Wanting wider horizons, she spent time at a language school in Los Angeles, did modeling for American brands, took part in a video for an American-Colombian band and studied the Chubbuck technique.

She played Yeliz in Leyla Yılmaz's independent film Bilmiyorum (Not Knowing, 2019) and appeared in the children's play Çinyo ile Markonyo, put on by Wise Akademi in Kadıköy at the start of 2020. Exodus, filmed across Istanbul, Cyprus and London, had its first screening at the Berlin Film Festival in 2024, took the London Independent Film Festival's Best Drama Feature prize the same year and became available on digital platforms in 2025.