Şehnaz Dilan

Şehnaz Dilan — Biography

Şehnaz Dilan is an actress who came to the Turkish film industry from women's football and modelling and made a place for herself in the Yeşilçam cinema of the 1980s. She became known for her roles in Aşık Oldum and Yoksul, has appeared in more than a hundred and twenty film and television productions, and also worked as a singer on stage. In recent years she has returned to the big screen, with new films in the 2020s.

She took up sport in İzmir, encouraged by an uncle who ran football in the region, and from 1979 played for the women's team of Filizspor, winning the championship in 1981 as the team's captain. After moving to Istanbul she appeared in advertisements and fashion shows before stepping in front of the film camera. Her first significant part came in Kızlar Sınıfı, and she made several more films with İlyas Salman. She starred opposite Şener Şen in Ertem Eğilmez's Aşık Oldum and opposite Kemal Sunal in Zeki Ökten's Yoksul. Vazife Uğruna, Tele Kızlar, Umut Sokağı and Bilge Olgaç's Gömlek belong to the same period, and she was honoured for her part in Eskici ve Oğulları.

In the 1990s she turned to television serials, appearing alongside İbrahim Tatlıses, Oya Aydoğan and Müslüm Gürses, performed in nightclubs and worked as a soloist in luxury hotels. From the 2000s she was seen mostly in series and television films such as Dumanlı Yol and Evlat. Yağmurlu Gecede Gülperi, Cehennem Kampı, Kimsesiz and 60 Gün mark her return to cinema.