Füsun Demirel

Füsun Demirel — Biography

Füsun Demirel is a Turkish actress and translator born in Ankara on 13 June 1958. She spent her student years in Italy, studying language at the University for Foreigners of Perugia and theatre at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Rome, and made her stage debut in 1980 in Vasıf Öngören's Zengin Mutfağı with the Berlin Kollektiv Theatre.

Returning to Turkey in 1982, she married fellow theatre actor Nurettin Şen and worked with the Dostlar, Devekuşu and Dormen theatre companies. She moved into film in 1984 and went on to appear in films such as Züğürt Ağa, Uçurtmayı Vurmasınlar and Büyük Adam Küçük Aşk, and in series such as Sıdıka.

Fluent in Italian, English and German, Demirel has translated 27 plays by Dario Fo and Franca Rame into Turkish and headed the actors' union ÇASOD in 1996; she is an aunt of journalist Aslı Aydıntaşbaş. Over her career she has repeatedly won best supporting actress prizes at festivals including Altın Koza, Altın Portakal and the Sadri Alışık Awards, and received an honorary award at the Frankfurt Turkish Film Festival in 2020.

In recent years she has played Gülçiçek Hanım in the series Bahar and continued a role in Zeytin Ağacı into its third season, and in 2026 she publicly called for Turkish-Kurdish reconciliation.