Tuğçe Kazaz

Tuğçe Kazaz — Biography

Tuğçe Kazaz is a former model who moved from beauty pageants into acting. She was crowned Miss Turkey in 2001 and is remembered on screen for the youth series Kampüsistan and the period series Son Yaz Balkanlar 1912, and in cinema for sharing the lead with Kenan İmirzalıoğlu in Uzun Hikâye.

She spent her childhood in İzmir and played basketball for seven years at school. She attended Yeditepe University's International Relations department but did not finish. In 2000 she came second in Elite Model Look Turkey and reached the top fifteen at the Paris selections, and a year later she won the Miss Turkey crown. She began acting in 2003 with Kampüsistan; while appearing in the Greek film Radyo Tantana (Sirens in the Aegean) she formed a lasting tie with that country. In later years she played Arzu in Son Yaz Balkanlar 1912 and Minure in Uzun Hikâye; Gönül Hırsızı, Kafkas and İçimde Akan Nehir also appear in her filmography.

Her private life drew wide press coverage: in 2005 she married the Greek actor George Seitaridis and settled in Greece, and her conversion to Orthodox Christianity before the wedding provoked criticism in Turkey. The marriage lasted three years; she then returned to Turkey and said she had become Muslim again. She later spoke at an anti-LGBT demonstration in Istanbul.