Yasemin Yalçın

Yasemin Yalçın — Biography

Yasemin Yalçın is one of the best-known female comic performers in Turkish entertainment. The characters she played on stage and screen, above all those in the programme Yasemince (Sürahi Hanım, also called Sürahi Nine, Gülazer, Kakılmış, Şuayip, Alican and Başbayan), introduced her to a wide audience. She won the Golden Butterfly Award for Best Female Comedy Actress four times and remains active in theatre and comedy.

The daughter of a photographer, Yalçın finished Çemberlitaş Girls' High School in 1982 and began acting training at the Istanbul Municipality Conservatory that same year. She gained stage experience at the Kenter Theatre; in 1988 she appeared in a commercial with Demet Akbağ and played in productions such as Artiz Mektebi and Yılmaz Erdoğan's Kadınlık Bizde Kalsın. Her Golden Butterfly awards came in 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1995. In 1991 she founded the Yasemin Yalçın Theatre, named after her, together with her husband, actor İlyas İlbey.

She stepped away from the theatre for a while; she returned with Michael Frayn's Oyunun Oyunu and later took part in Emlakçıyı Beklerken. On television she appeared in Mihrap Yerinde, and in cinema she played Nurdane in Vezir Parmağı. In 2009 she sang "Taht Kurmuşsun Kalbime" on Suzan Kardeş's album Makyaj Odası Şarkıları.