Farah Zeynep Abdullah

Farah Zeynep Abdullah — Biography

Istanbul-born on 17 August 1989, Farah Zeynep Abdullah has an Iraqi Turkmen father and a Turkish-Bosnian mother. A French lycée in Istanbul carried her through part of secondary school before her father's work took the family to England, where she finished her schooling and went on to study French and Drama at the University of Kent.

While preparing for university she received an offer that put her in the role of Aylin on the 2010 series Öyle Bir Geçer Zaman Ki — the part that made her a household name and set her acting path in motion. Playing Mediha in Yılmaz Erdoğan's Kelebeğin Rüyası marked her cinema debut in 2013, the same year she finished her degree. Bi Küçük Eylül Meselesi, Unutursam Fısılda and Kurt Seyit ve Şura followed a year later, then Muhteşem Yüzyıl Kösem in 2015 and a second Erdoğan project, Ekşi Elmalar, in 2016.

Ajda Pekkan was her role in the 2018 film Arif V 216, while Bizim İçin Şampiyon that same year cast her as Begüm in a story built around jockey Halis Karataş. Audiences responded strongly to her turn as the singer Bergen (Belgin Sarılmışer) in the 2022 biopic Bergen, and 2023 brought Bihter, drawn from the novel Aşk-ı Memnu. Music and producing occupy Abdullah alongside acting; her trophy case holds two SİYAD awards.