Aylin Tezel

Aylin Tezel (pronounces her name like Eileen Tetsel, born 29 November 1983 in Bünde, Germany) is a German actress. Her father is Necmettin Tezel, a Turkish medical doctor practicing in Bielefeld, Germany. Her mother is Ingrid Tezel, 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.

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.

Most recently Aylin Tezel has filmed Marco Kreuzpaintner’s new 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.