II
Zuhal Olcay

About:

10 August 1957

Zuhol Olcay is first and formost an actress, but alongside her acting career she released seven albums up till today. She was trained at the State Conservatory in Turkey from which she graduated in 1976. She then worked at the Turkish State Theater until she formed her own theater company in 1999.

Since the beginning of the eighties, she appeared in various television and cinema productions and she won her first cinema award in 1984 with Ihtiras Firtinasi, and her best lead actress award in 1985 with Amansiz Yol.

In 1989 she played ‘Evita’ in the world famous musical. Since then she appeared in many stage productions, made nearly 20 films in Turkey playing the lead and won numerous awards in theater and films. She won Berlin Golden Band award with her role Elif in Farewell to False Paradise which she filmed in Germany. She performed in many theater plays such as ‘Othello’ (Shakspeare) and ‘The seagull’ (Cehov). She won the Avni Dilligil Theater Special award in 1986 with ‘The seagull’ and won the Ankara Art Institution award in 1998 with ‘Balcony’.

She formed her on theatre company - Oyun Atolyesi - in 1999, and with the first play of the company, Steven Berkoff's ‘Kvetch’, she won the Afife Theatre award in the category of Best lead actress in a comedy play. Along with her careers in theatre and cinema, Zuhal Olcay started singing professionally after she played Evita in the world famous musical. She acted in Nisan Akman's cinema production ‘Dunden sonra yarindan once’ and performed the song of this film which had the same name with the film.

Zuhal Olcay won numerous awards with her role Sukran in She played in Tayfun Pirselimoglu's ‘ Hicbiryerde’ (‘Innowhereland’) and she also performed the songs from the soundtrack of the film which was composed by Cengiz Onural. Zuhal Olcay worked with Mehmet Teoman, Vedat Sakman, Selim Atakan and Bulent Ortacgil in the musical area and she released 7 albums.

Zuhal was married (and divorced) three times and has a daughter, Ceren Olcay (1981).
 
Parts of this biography were based on information published by Mevzuhal.com (2007).

On the web:
- Zuhal’s official website: http://www.mevzuhal.com
- Zuhal's movies on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/

If you like this, you probably like.. / european counterparts:

Dimitra Galani (Greece)

What do we think:

DB: In the fifties and sixties it was very common that actresses had a singing career next to their career on the screen. Think Sarita Montiel (Spain), Hildegard Knef (Germany) or Ajda Pekkan (Turkey). Usually it was the songs from the movie that were released on vinyl. Over the years this tradition has been watered down a bit with here and there some actresses who do a one-off album (think Catherine Deneuve or Isabella Adjani (France)). But not with Olcay who seems to take her singing career just as serious as her acting and delivers some quality sophistaced Turkish pop/jazz. And with orginal material. Olcay is the exception to the rule that actresses should stay acting. Good stuff.

PR: XXXX.

Albums:

♪♪ - Küçük bir öykü bu – 1990

♪♪♪ - Oyuncu – 1993

♪♪♪ - İki çift laf – 1996

♪♪♪♪ - İhanet – 1998

? - Başucu şarkıları – 2001

? - Başucu şarkıları 2 – 2004

♪♪♪♪ - Aşk'in halleri – 2009

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♪♪♪♪♪ = outstanding album, an absolute must-have
♪♪♪♪ = great album, highly recomended
♪♪♪ = nice album
♪♪ = be careful, requires listening before buying
♪ = best to be avoided