Aylin Tezel

Aylin Tezel (; born 29 November 1983) is a German actress and dancer. She was born in Bünde. Her father is a Turkish-born medical doctor practicing in Bielefeld, Germany, and her mother is a nurse. She is a middle child, having an older sister and a younger brother. She had her breakthrough with a main role in the film "Almanya - Welcome to Germany" which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2011 and with the main role in the film "Am Himmel der Tag" (En: "Breaking Horizons") for which she received the Best Actress Award at the Torino Film Festival in 2012. Life and career Aylin Tezel was born in Bünde and grew up in the Bielefeld district of Sennestadt. There she danced from the age of six and graduated from the Hans Ehrenberg academic high school. She studied acting at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin but left the school in her second year. After her film debut in the arthouse feature "" (2008) she played a central role in Oliver Kienle's award- winning film "" (First Steps Award 2010). The actress was especially noted for her role in Yasemin Şamdereli's film "Almanya - Welcome to Germany", which premiered at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival and won the Deutscher Filmpreis (German Film Award) in 2011. The film was a big hit in German cinemas and had cinema releases in many countries. During Christmas 2011, Tezel was seen as Cinderella in Uwe Janson's TV film "Aschenputtel" and soon afterwards as one of the main recurring characters, young cop Nora Dalay, in Germany's most popular cop series Tatort. Irish director Shimmy Marcus gave her the main part in his short film "Rhinos" (2011) which premiered at the CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto, Canada and was nominated for an Award at the Irish Film & Television Awards in 2013. In 2012 she was seen in main roles in the feature films "3 Zimmer/Küche/Bad" (engl. "Move") and "Breaking Horizons" (original Title: "Am Himmel der Tag"). Pola Beck's "Breaking Horizons" won the Award for Best Film in German-language feature film competition at the 8th Zurich Film Festival and Aylin Tezel received the Best Actress Award at the 30th Torino Film Festival.