Cansu Dere

Cansu Dere — Biography

Cansu Dere was born on 14 October 1980 in Ankara, into a family with roots in Thessaloniki and İzmir on her mother's side and Bulgaria on her father's. She began studying archaeology at Istanbul University's Faculty of Letters, but left when she placed third in the Kanal D-run Miss Turkey pageant in 2000; she was set to represent Turkey at that year's Miss Universe final, but the government barred her from travelling because of the political dispute over Cyprus, where the pageant was held. She modeled for designers such as Hakan Yıldırım, Arzu Kaprol and Dilek Hanif, represented Turkey at fashion events in Paris through the textile exporters' association İTKİB, and hosted programs on Kanal D and NTV. She made her acting debut in 2004 in the series Metro Palas, rose to popularity with Sıla (2006-2008), played Defne in the film Son Osmanlı Yandım Ali (2007), and took the defining role of Eyşan in Ezel (2009-2011). She later played Firuze in Muhteşem Yüzyıl (2012-2013), Zeynep in Anne (2016-2017), Nevra Elmas in the Emmy-winning Şahsiyet (2018), and Asya Yılmaz in Sadakatsiz (2020-2022). In 2026 she returned to cinema with Portekiz Aşkı, filmed in Lisbon as the first joint Turkish-Portuguese feature production.