Zeliha Berksoy

Zeliha Berksoy — Biography

Zeliha Berksoy is an actress, director and teacher in Turkish theatre, known both for her leading stage roles and for the institutions she helped create. She made her name with her Brecht recitals and the play Asiye Nasıl Kurtulur?, and she headed the Theatre Department at the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University State Conservatory until 2013. She is the daughter of the opera singer Semiha Berksoy.

Born in Istanbul, she trained at the Ankara State Conservatory, began in 1965 as a trainee at the Ankara State Theatre and played leading parts in Uçurtmanın Zinciri and Kaktüs Çiçeği. In 1967 she was sent to Berlin, where she worked as an assistant director at the Schiller Theater and trained at the Berliner Ensemble. Playing Asiye in Vasıf Öngören's Asiye Nasıl Kurtulur? made her known across Turkey, and the role won her the 1970 best actress award of the Sanat Sevenler Derneği. In 1971 she settled in Istanbul and worked at Dostlar Tiyatrosu; Keşanlı Ali Destanı, directed by Ferhan Şensoy at the Istanbul City Theatres, became one of her important roles and brought her the 1988 “Doruktakiler” award of Nokta magazine.

From 1972 her Brecht recitals, given in German, were an important part of her stage life. She began teaching at the Istanbul State Conservatory in 1974, took part in founding its Theatre Department in 1978, and became a professor in 2000. In 1990 she founded the Bakırköy Municipal Theatre, and for this work she received the Turkish Critics' Association award in 2008. In cinema she appeared in Filim Bitti, İkili Oyunlar and Güz Sancısı.