Ayça Damgacı

Ayça Damgacı — Biography

Ayça Damgacı was born in 1973 in Istanbul to İsmet Damgacı, an immigrant from Western Thrace, and Müşerref Damgacı. After finishing Nişantaşı Girls' High School she began studying economics at Istanbul University but left without graduating, turned to acting at Şahika Tekand's studio, and went on to study theatre criticism at the university's Faculty of Letters. From 1998 to 2012 she acted and assisted with directing at the Tiyatro Oyunevi ensemble, sang with a band performing songs in several languages, and appeared in the controversial play Yala ama Yutma.

Her screen career began with Kurdish director Ravin Asaf's German-made Sarı Günler; a relationship with an Iraqi actor she met on that shoot inspired the screenplay she co-wrote with director Hüseyin Karabey for Gitmek: My Marlon and Brando (2008), in which she also starred, winning Best Actress honours at festivals in Istanbul, Adana and Sarajevo. She went on to appear in films including Unutma Beni İstanbul, 72. Koğuş and Yozgat Blues.

On television she played Hatçik in Aramızda Kalsın, took a role in O Hayat Benim, and reached a wide audience from 2018 as Hasret Şengül in Avlu, later carried by Netflix, receiving the Zeliş Deniz Queer Cinema Award in 2020. In 2021 she co-directed her first documentary, Patrida, with Tümay Göktepe, tracing her father's own migration story.