Ayta Sözeri

Ayta Sözeri — Biography

Ayta Sözeri was born on 31 March 1976 in Nuremberg, West Germany, to a family of Circassian descent on her mother's side, and moved with them to İzmir in 1982. She studied business administration at Ege University and then trained in Turkish classical music with the Dokuz Eylül University choir under conductor Avni Anıl, later working as a backing vocalist for Sezen Aksu. She was discovered by director Mustafa Şevki Doğan while performing at a restaurant and entered acting in 2000 with the series Dadı and Hayat Bağları. She went on to appear in popular dramas such as Arka Sokaklar, Parmaklıklar Ardında, Akasya Durağı, Yalan Dünya and Paramparça, reaching a wide audience through Ulan İstanbul. On screen she starred in Güneşi Gördüm and Teslimiyet, won a best supporting actress award in 2018 for her role in Aile Arasında, and continued her film career through Yılbaşı Gecesi in 2022. She carried her classical music training into a singing career, releasing several singles and giving open-air concerts in 2019 and 2020. Sözeri underwent gender transition in her twenties and is also known as an advocate for human rights and LGBT rights.