Hümeyra

Born

15 October 1947 (aged 79)

On Avşar Film

appeared in 4 movies

Hümeyra was born on 15 October 1947, the daughter of Muvaffak Akbay, the dean of the Ankara Faculty of Law. She had ballet training at a young age and began primary school at Ankara Koleji; after losing her father she settled in Istanbul with her mother. She completed her high school education in London, and in these years began playing guitar and composing. When she returned to Istanbul at the age of eighteen, she worked as a reporter at the İstanbul Ekspres newspaper.

While working as a cover designer at Melodi Plak, she turned to singing after performing her own composition Olmasaydı. In the 1970s she came to the fore with the songs Kördüğüm, Sessiz Gemi and Otuz Beş Yaş; among her later albums, Tutkulardan İntihar is known as one of the first examples of the Turkish rap genre.

She began in cinema with Atıf Yılmaz's film Talihli Amele, and acted in Ömer Kavur's Kırık Bir Aşk Hikâyesi and Atıf Yılmaz's Asiye Nasıl Kurtulur? With Asiye Nasıl Kurtulur? she won the Altın Portakal for best supporting actress in Antalya in 1986; in 1985 she had appeared on stage with Ferhan Şensoy's Ortaoyuncular company in the play İçinden Tramvay Geçen Şarkı.

In the 2000s she reached a new generation of viewers with the role of İffet Sütçüoğlu in the series Avrupa Yakası. She also appeared in the series Melekler Korusun and Yalan Dünya and in the films Sınav and Dedemin İnsanları. In 2007, at the international cinema history gathering in Istanbul, she received the Işık Saçan Apollon honorary award.

Hümeyra played Nuran in Babam ve Oğlum, Nezihe in Biz Böyleyiz, Meryem / Rabia in Ulak and Müyesser in Son Dans, all Avşar Film productions.