Zeynep Kankonde

Zeynep Kankonde — Biography

Zeynep Kankonde (born March 3, 1980, in Eskişehir) is a Turkish stage, film, television and voice actress. A 2001 graduate of the Theatre Department of Anadolu University's State Conservatory in Eskişehir, she went on to teach acting at the Müjdat Gezen Art Centre and Ekol Drama, and has also worked extensively as a voice actress in numerous series.

Her on-screen career began in 2005 with the series Beşinci Boyut. She played Şehriban in Ulan İstanbul, Atiye in İki Yaka Bir İsmail, and Ayşe in Yeni Gelin, and also appeared in series including Familya, Kiraz Mevsimi, Kuzey Yıldızı and Seversin. In film she has appeared in Bir Baba Hindu, Olaylar Olaylar, Dedemin Fişi and Senden Bana Kalan, and in 2016 she won Best Comedy Actress at the Direklerarası Theatre Awards.

More recently she played the character Ümmü in the series Uzak Şehir, leaving the show in August 2025 for family reasons and signing on to a new series project shortly afterward. She married Congolese-born Christian Kankonde in 2004, with whom she has a daughter, Emma, and the couple divorced in 2015.