Gülse Birsel

Gülse Birsel — Biography

Gülse Birsel was born on 11 March 1971 in Istanbul; her maiden name was Şener. After Beyoğlu Anatolian High School she studied economics at Boğaziçi University at her family's wish, having already started reporting for Aktüel magazine in her second year. From 1994 to 1996 she completed a master's in film at Columbia University in New York. Returning to Turkey, she wrote foreign news for ATV, then ran the Turkish editions of Esquire and Harper's Bazaar as editor-in-chief, wrote columns for Sabah and later Hürriyet until 2019, and published seven books, beginning with Gayet Ciddiyim.

Her television career opened in 2002 with the programme g.a.g., which she both wrote and presented. Her true breakthrough came in February 2004 with Avrupa Yakası: she scripted the series and starred as Aslı until its 2009 finale after 190 episodes. She then wrote and led Kanal D's Yalan Dünya as Deniz, and later Jet Sosyete as Gizem Özpamuk. Her cinema debut was Hırsız Var! (2005), followed by 7 Kocalı Hürmüz as Safinaz; her first feature screenplay, Aile Arasında, opened in December 2017, and in 2022 she wrote and acted in Yılbaşı Gecesi for Disney+.

In August 1999 she married journalist Murat Birsel; they have no children. She also wrote 2 Aile Arasında, the sequel to Aile Arasında filmed nine years on, released in cinemas on 4 December 2026. Her work has earned her Golden Butterfly awards.