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Nazan Kesal
Photo: Wikimedia Commons · Serkan Yakın · CC BY-SA 3.0

Nazan Kesal

Actor · 57 years old

Fazilet in the series Fazilet Hanım ve Kızları

Profile

Age57
Birth dateMarch 28, 1969
BirthplaceManisa
ProfessionActor
Height1.62 m
Zodiac signAries
Eye colorBrown
EducationDokuz Eylül University Faculty of Fine Arts, Theatre Acting Department
SpouseErcan Kesal

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Nazan Kesal — Biography

Nazan Kesal was born on March 28, 1969, in Manisa and graduated from the Theatre-Acting Department of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Dokuz Eylül University in 1991; she is a Turkish stage, film and television actress and director. Between 1996 and 2004 she worked as both actor and director at the Diyarbakır State Theatre before moving to the Bursa State Theatre, also performing with independent companies such as Ankara Sanatevi, Tiyatro Ayna and Tiyatro İstanbul.

She entered cinema through Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Uzak (2002) and traveled to Cannes with his Climates (İklimler, 2006), a role that also won her the Best Supporting Actress award at the Antalya Golden Orange festival; she later won Best Actress honors at the Istanbul Film Festival for Hair (Saç, 2010) and at the Ankara International Film Festival for Daire (2014). On television she is best known for playing Fazilet Çamkıran in Fazilet Hanım ve Kızları, and has also appeared in series such as Bir Zamanlar Çukurova, Halka and Çocuk.

Married since 2005 to fellow actor Ercan Kesal, with whom she has a son, Kesal continues to tour her one-woman play Yaralarım Aşktandır across Turkey and has recently appeared in new films such as Su Yüzü (2025) and Acı Kahve (2025).

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Their work through different eyes

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

Nazan Kesal's real range lies between Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Uzak and İklimler and broad-audience productions such as Kardeşim Benim and Delibal. One is the world of auteur cinema, the other the discipline of a box-office film, and Kesal carries both ends. Saç and Daire complete that line. In my view her value is that even in the mainstream she brings a weight from the more serious side of cinema.

Series Binger A series devotee tracking character arcs, cast chemistry and season pacing.

Fazilet Hanım ve Kızları is the television work where Nazan Kesal comes forward most: Fazilet, who raises her daughters alone and strives to lift the family's standing, is the figure at the middle of the series. Sevda Çağlayan in Bir Zamanlar Çukurova puts her inside a larger cast in a long-running series. Together they show that Kesal can sit at the center of a series or beside it.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

The mother or family-woman mold returns often in Nazan Kesal's mainstream work: Ayşe's Mother in Kardeşim Benim, Fazilet in Fazilet Hanım ve Kızları. Fazilet at least touches the anxiety of climbing the social ladder. But the mold looks narrow beside the women of Uzak and İklimler, and Kesal is, in my view, more interesting in the parts outside it.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes on this person's screen work, written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader comments are below.

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