Aylin Tezel

Aylin Tezel
Born	(1983-11-29) 29 November 1983 Bünde Germany
Occupation(s)	Film actress Television actress
Years active	2007–Present

Aylin Tezel (German: [ˈaɪlɪn ˈteːtsl̩]; born 29 November 1983 in Bünde, Germany) is a German actress and dancer. Her father is a Turkish-born medical doctor practicing in Bielefeld, Germany. Her mother is a German nurse. She is a middle child, having an older sister and a younger brother. She is most known for her main role in the film "Almanya - Welcome to Germany" which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2011 and for her main role in the film "Am Himmel der Tag" (En: "Breaking Horizons") for which she received the Best Actress Award at the Torino Film Festival in 2012.

Life and career

Aylin Tezel was born in Bünde and grew up in the Bielefeld district of Sennestadt. There she studied dance from the age of six and graduated from the Hans Ehrenberg private evangelical school. She studied acting at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin. After her film debut in the arthouse feature "Unschuld" (2008) she played a central role in Oliver Kienle’s award- winning film "Closer Than Blood" (First Steps Award 2010).

The actress was especially noted for her role in Yasemin Şamdereli’s film "Almanya - Welcome to Germany", which premiered at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival and won the Deutscher Filmpreis (German Film Award) in 2011. The film was a big hit in German cinemas and had cinema releases in many countries. During Christmas 2011, Tezel was seen as Cinderella in Uwe Janson’s TV film "Aschenputtel" and soon afterwards in one of the main roles as a young cop in Germany’s most popular cop series Tatort. Irish director Shimmy Marcus gave her the main part in his short film "Rhinos" (2011) which premiered at the CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto, Canada and was nominated for an Award at the Irish Film & Television Awards in 2013.

In 2012 there were cinema releases of her films "3 Zimmer/Küche/Bad" (engl. "Move") and "Breaking Horizons" (original Title: "Am Himmel der Tag"). Pola Beck’s "Breaking Horizons" won the Award for Best Film in German-language feature film competition at the 8th Zurich Film Festival and Aylin Tezel received the Best Actress Award at the 30th Torino Film Festival.

Aylin Tezel filmed Marco Kreuzpaintner’s feature "Coming In" which was released by Warner Bros. in October 2014, playing female lead Heidi who falls for a gay star- hairdresser (Kostja Ullmann). She played female lead Sabine in Irish Robert Manson’s forthcoming debut feature film "Lost in the Living". In the feature "Macho Man", the film version of a German bestseller she plays the female lead alongside German actor Christian Ulmen and Danish actor Dar Salim. The film was released on October 29, 2015 by Universum Film.

Tezel took voice lessons from the late voice coach Julia Wilson-Dickson in London to improve her opportunities for English language roles.

In 2017 Aylin Tezel had a recurring role in the Canadian CBC Television spy thriller television series X Company. She played the Jewish Polish Resistance Fighter Zosia in 6 episodes of the 3rd season alongside Warren Brown and Évelyne Brochu and spoke English with a Polish Accent for the part.

Most recently Aylin filmed the thriller 7500 alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

She also wrote and directed the short film Phoenix (2020) starring Irish Actors Killian Scott, Bríd Brennan and German Actress Leonie Benesch.

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Original Title	Role	Notes
2007	Whom Honor is due	Wem Ehre gebührt	Selda Özkan (L)	Tatort TV series episode
2008	Innocence	Unschuld	Derya (L)
2009	Closer than Blood	Bis aufs Blut - Brüder auf Bewährung	Sina (S)	First Steps Award 2010
2010	Bloch	Bloch - Inshallah	Dalia (L)	(TV Film)
2011	Almanya - Welcome to Germany	Almanya - Willkommen in Deutschland	Canan (L)	61st Berlin International Film Festival Competition, Deutscher Filmpreis 2011 for Best Film, Best Screenplay
2011	Cinderella	Aschenputtel	Aschenputtel (L)	(TV Film)
2012	Move	3 Zimmer/Küche/Bad	Maria (L)
2012	Breaking Horizons	Am Himmel der Tag	Lara (L)	Best German Language Film Award at Zurich Film Festival 2012, Best Actress Award at Torino Film Festival 2012, Best Upcoming Actress at German Actors Awards 2013, Best Actress at Sehsüchte Film Festival 2013
2012	Rhinos	Rhinos	Ingrid (L)	(Shortfilm) Nominated for Best Shortfilm at Irish Film & Television Awards 2012, Prix du Public Best Film, Brest European Short Film Festival 2012, Audience Award Best International Short Film, Corona Cork Film Festival 2012
2012 - 2019	Tatort	Tatort Dortmund	Nora Dalay (L)	(TV series) 14 episodes
2013	Kleine Schiffe	Kleine Schiffe	Lilli (L)	(TV Film)
2013	Inhale	Tanz mit ihr	Sie (L)	(Shortfilm) Director, Producer, Actress, Choreographer Berlin & Beyond Film Festival San Francisco, Cork Film Festival, to be released on Arte in 2015
2014	Coming In	Coming In	Heidi (L)
2014	To Life!	Auf das Leben!	Emily (S)	Vienna Film Award 2015
2015	Macho Man	Macho Man	Aylin (L)	Release date: October 29, 2015 - plays a lead character with the same first name as her own
2015	Lost in the Living	Lost in the Living	Sabine (L)	First lead role in an English language film, DVD released on September 28, 2018
2015	Why is This Night Different?	Why is This Night Different?	Amena (S)	Homeland TV series episode aired October 25, 2015
2016	The Informant	Die Informantin	Aylin (L)	(TV Film) aired March 19, 2016 - plays a lead character with the same first name as her own
2017	X Company	X Company	Zosia (S)	(Canadian TV series) guest starred as a Polish-Jewish resistance fighter in third season episodes 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10 speaking in English with Polish accent for the role
2017	Between Heaven and Hell	Zwischen Himmel und Hölle	Ottilie von Gersen (S)	(TV Film) plays a historical character in a film about the Protestant Reformation that was aired on the 500th anniversary of the event, also shown in the UK on BBC with English subtitles
2019	The Informant 2	Die Informantin - Der Fall Lissabon	Aylin (L)	(TV Film) aired April, 2019 - The film is a sequel to the film The Informant (2016)
2019	The Master Butcher	Der Club der singenden Metzger	Delphine (L)	is a miniseries about a group of German emigrants from the 1920s trying to find a new home in America. Jonas Nay and Aylin Tezel are the leads. The film is based on Louise Erdrich's novel The Master Butchers Singing Club and aired on German TV on the 27th of December 2019 as a 3 hour long film. Spoken languages in the film are German and English. It was directed by Uli Edel.
2019	7500	7500	Gökce (L)	7500 is a thriller about a terrorist attack on a plane. It starrs Joseph Gordon-Levitt who plays the Co-Pilot Tobias Ellis. Aylin plays his girlfriend Gökce who is on the same flight as a stewardess. The film was released in German cinemas in December 2019 and was announced to be released globally on Amazon Prime Video in June 2020.

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Project	Result
2012	Torino Film Festival	Best Actress	Breaking Horizons	Won
2013	Askania Award	Shooting Star	Tatort, Aschenputtel, Am Himmel der Tag	Won
2013	Sehsüchte Film Festival	Best Acting	Am Himmel der Tag	Won
2013	German Film Critics Association Awards	Best Actress	Am Himmel der Tag, 3 Zimmer/Küche/Bad	Nominated
2013	German Actors Award	Best upcoming actress	Am Himmel der Tag	Won
2013	Hessischer Film-und Kinopreis	Best Actress	Am Himmel der Tag	Nominated
2015	German Actors Award	Best actress in a comedy role	Kleine Schiffe	Won
2015	Jupiter Award	Best TV-Actress	Am Himmel der Tag, Tatort	Nominated
2016	Hof International Film Festival	Award for Filmmaker	Filmpreis der Stadt Hof	Won
2019	Festival of Animated Film	Best Voice Actor	Smallfoot	Nominated
2020	Jupiter Award	Best TV-Actress	Tatort, Die Informantin - Der Fall Lissabon	Nominated

External links

• Aylin Tezel at IMDb
• Represented by London Acting Agency Curtis Brown
• Represented by German Acting Agency die agenten
• Photo- interview at the Süddeutsche Zeitung [1] (in German)
• review Breaking Horizons at Reykjavik International Film Festival