Nurgül Yeşilçay

Nurgül Yeşilçay — Biography

Nurgül Yeşilçay was born on 26 March 1976 in Afyonkarahisar; after finishing secondary school in İzmir she graduated from the Theatre Department of Anadolu University in Eskişehir in 2001. As a student she performed classic stage roles such as Ophelia in Hamlet and Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire. She entered television in 1998 as Gülsüm in İkinci Bahar, and became a household name in 2002 playing Bahar Karadağ in Çağan Irmak's Asmalı Konak.

She won Best Actress honors three times: at Adana's Golden Boll for Kostak Emine in Eğreti Gelin (2004), at the Sadri Alışık Awards for Hacer in Adem'in Trenleri (2007), and at Antalya's Golden Orange for Aydanur in Vicdan (2008). Fatih Akın's The Edge of Heaven (2007) won Best Screenplay at Cannes and brought her international recognition; that same year she sat on the main jury of the Cairo International Film Festival. She reached mass audiences through Ezo Gelin, Aşk ve Ceza, Paramparça and as Kösem Sultan in Muhteşem Yüzyıl Kösem, later leading Gülperi, Kefaret and Veda Mektubu.

She married Cem Özer in 2004, had their son Osman Nejat in 2005, and divorced in 2010. Having settled in Urla, İzmir, in 2025, she has shared that she now spends time on handicrafts such as turning flowerpots into garden lamps.