Songül Öden

Songül Öden — Biography

Born in Diyarbakır in February 1979 to a Zaza contractor father and a homemaker mother, Songül Öden moved to Ankara with her mother and siblings at just six months old after her parents separated, and grew up there. Having studied acting at Ankara University's theatre department, she also took part-time voice lessons at Hacettepe University, and continued her stage career at private and state theatres in the capital as well as the state theatres of Trabzon and Diyarbakır. She reached television in 1999 with Ferhunde Hanımlar, and gained recognition stretching from the Arab world to the Balkans through her lead role opposite Kıvanç Tatlıtuğ in the 2005 series Gümüş. That was followed by Vazgeç Gönlüm and Mükemmel Çift; she then cemented her fame from 2011 onward playing Yasemin in Umutsuz Ev Kadınları, the same year she was appointed the UN Population Fund's goodwill ambassador for Turkey. On screen she went on to appear in Acı Aşk, 72. Koğuş, Ekşi Elmalar and Beni Çok Sev, and on television in Fi, Kayıtdışı, Payitaht Abdülhamid, Bir Aile Hikayesi, Uysallar and Oğlum, later taking roles in the Atatürk 1881-1919 films. She married fellow actor Canberk Uçucu in 2002 and separated in 2011, then married businessman Arman Bıçakçı in 2020; her debut short-story collection, Eşrefi Mahlukat, reached readers in 2025.