Özay Fecht

Özay Fecht — Biography

Özay Fecht was born in Istanbul on 29 November 1953. At eighteen she moved to Germany; after failing the conservatory entrance exams she studied American philology, spent two years at a private mime school, and worked with a theatre troupe for three years. She gave her first jazz concert in Berlin in 1975 and went on to perform across Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands; after a period living in France she moved to New York, recorded a jazz album, and returned to Turkey in 1997.

Her first leading role, in 40 Square Meters Germany, brought her the German Film Award for Best Actress, and her part in Erden Kıral's Blue Exile won her the Turkish Film Critics Association's Best Supporting Actress prize. She has appeared in dozens of German and Turkish productions, including the long-running series Sakarya Fırat and films such as Evim Sensin, Zerre, Where Are You Going, Habibi?, Nuri Bilge Ceylan's The Wild Pear Tree, and Copilot, and she wrote, directed and starred in two shorts, "The Button" and "The Touch." As a jazz singer she recorded with Doug Hammond and Joachim Kühn and, in the 1990s, worked with Steve Lacy and John Betsch; she is also known as an educator. Fecht speaks Turkish, German, English, French and Spanish.