Hazal Kaya

Leyla Hazal Kaya (born 1 October 1990) is a Turkish actress best known for her leading roles in Aşki Memnu (2008-2010), Adını Feriha Koydum (2011-2012) and Bizim Hikaye (2017-2019).

Kaya is one of Turkey's highest-paid actresses. She received several accolades and was the only Turkish recipient of the "Lebanon Awards 2015" award. She made her acting debut with a guest role in Acemi Cadı. Kaya gain popularity for Nihal Ziyagil in a modern-day adaptation of the novel Aşk-ı Memnu, written by Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil.

She is best known for playing the role of Feriha Sarrafoglu, Adını Feriha Koydum (2011–2012) and won 2nd Crystal Mouse Media Awards for Best Actress. The series had one of the highest TV ratings in Turkey. She further known for playing Filiz Elibol in Bizim Hikaye (inspired by the British TV show Shameless) (2017–2019) for which she received highly acclaimed and Latina Turkish Awards for Best Actress respectively.

Kaya explore into the webseries world with the time travel historical drama series Midnight at the Pera Palace (2022) playing Esra / Peride. The show was premiered on Netflix. She is married to actor Ali Atay in 2019 with whom she has two children.

Early life
Kaya was born in Konya, Turkey. She attended Gaziosmanpaşa elementary school and graduated in 2009 from the Liceo Italiano di Istanbul. She enrolled in Istanbul Bilgi University for her higher education. Her parents, who are both lawyers, divorced when she was 7 years old. She was introduced to the art and acting world at a very young age, and as a child she took ballet and violin lessons for 7 years. Kaya speaks Italian and English fluently, in addition to her native language Turkish. She was also said to be learning a fourth language, German.

Early work (2006–2011)
Kaya started her acting career in 2006 with TV series Genco. She played the character of Özge (Gülay Erkaya). She had guest roles in fantasy series Acemi Cadı of Turkish version "Sabrina Teenage Witch", popular series Sıla, "Taşların Sırrı". In 2008, Kaya played Nihal Ziyagil in a modern-day adaptation of the novel Aşk-ı Memnu, written by Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil. co-starring Kıvanç Tatlıtuğ and Beren Saat. She had her cinematic debut in Selçuk Aydemir's movie Çalgı Çengi in 2011.

At the same time she took lessons from Ayla Algan in drama. She then joined Ümit Çırak Modern Acting Techniques Workshop and took acting lessons from Ümit Çırak himself.

Career progression (2012–2016)
Kaya's turning point came when she starring in the first two seasons of the TV series Adını Feriha Koydum (2011) as the lead character, Feriha Yilmaz. She played the role of a porter's daughter trapped between two lives and falls in love with the most popular student at her university, a rich and handsome boy "Emir Sarrafoğlu" (Çağatay Ulusoy). The series had one of the highest TV ratings in Turkey and received highly acclaimed. Later, together with her mother Ayşegül Kaya, she appeared in the commercials for Bingo. In the late 2012, she left the cast of Adını Feriha Koydum and starred in a new series called Son Yaz Balkanlar 1912, portraying the character Emine. However, the series ended after a few episodes due to low ratings.

She later appeared in the 2013 series A.Ş.K and played the character of Azra Özak, a tennis coach. That series also ended after 13 episodes. In 2015 she appeared in Maral: En Güzel Hikayem, opposite Aras Bulut İynemli. She played the leading character Maral Erdem.

Established actress (2017–present)
After a break of one year, she starred in TV show Bizim Hikaye (in English: Our Story), which is the Turkish adaptation of the American TV series Shameless. In this TV show Kaya plays "Filiz Elibol Aktan", (a young girl forced to take care of her five younger siblings after her mother left the lower-class family) opposite actor Burak Deniz. Writing for Vatan, "She reacted positively to Hazal Kaya's acting, stating while watching Filiz on the screen". The series received positive response and kaya's performance was highly acclaimed and teamed as "remarkable" and received several accolades including 19th Internet Media Best of the Year Awards for Best Actress and Latina Turkish Awards for Best Series Pair (Burak Deniz). The series was aired in variety of languages.

As of 2021, she shares the leading roles with Bugra Gulsoy and Ozan Dolunay in the TV series Misafir, an adaptation of the Japanese TV series Oasis. Since 2010, she appears as Behzat's dead daughter "Berna" in some episodes and film of hit crime series Behzat Ç.

Personal life
She married actor Ali Atay on 6 February 2019, and gave birth to their son later that year. Their daughter was born in February 2023. In April 2023, against Hazal Kaya the prosecution demanded 2 years and 4 months imprisonment for a tweet in which she allegedly had insulted a Turkish sergeant who was sentenced to ten years imprisonment for having raped Ipek Er.

In the media
Kaya is one of Turkey's highest-paid actresses. Ichaps, having chosen the most important names of 2014 in many categories, included Hazal Kaya among the "most influential names in the world" and granted her the medal of international excellence in the category of artists. According to the results of a survey conducted on the United Arab Emirates-based MBC channels, which ranked Turkish series and special programs, she ranked 4th on the list of most admired Turkish women artists. At the same time, official surveys covering the August 2010–August 2015 period, taken in 35 countries, placed her 6th on the list of 10 most popular actresses. She was also the only Turkish recipient of the "Lebanon Awards 2015" award. According to the results obtained from 35 countries between May 2011 and May 2016, Kaya was the 6th most popular actress. In May 2016, she rose to number five on the list. The website World's Most Beautifuls ranked her fifth on the list of 10 most beautiful women of 2016.