Aylin Tezel

Aylin Tezel
Tezel on the red carpet of the opening gala of the Berlinale in February 2023
Born	(1983-11-29) 29 November 1983 Bünde, West Germany
Occupation(s)	Film actress Television actress
Years active	2007–Present

Aylin Tezel (German: [ˈaɪlɪn ˈteːtsl̩]; born 29 November 1983) is a German actress, writer and director. She was born in Bünde. Her father is a Turkish-born medical doctor practicing in Bielefeld, Germany, and her mother is a nurse. She is a middle child, having an older sister and a younger brother. She had her breakthrough with a main role in the film Almanya - Welcome to Germany which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2011 and with the 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. In 2023 she released her directorial debut Falling Into Place which won the award of the International Federation of Film Critics, known as the FIPRESCI Prize, at the 27th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

Life and career

Aylin Tezel was born in Bünde and grew up in the Bielefeld district of Sennestadt. There she danced from the age of six and graduated from the Hans Ehrenberg academic high school. She studied acting at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin but left the school in her second year. After her film debut in the arthouse feature Innocence (2008), she played a central role in Oliver Kienle's award- winning film Stronger 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 as one of the main recurring characters, young cop Nora Dalay, 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 she was seen in main roles in the feature 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.

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). 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 in 2015 by Universum Film. She played female lead Sabine in Robert Manson's English-language debut feature film Lost in the Living. The film was released in cinemas in Ireland and Germany in 2017 and was later picked up by Amazon Prime.

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 Evelyne Brochu and spoke English with a Polish accent for the part.

In June 2020 Amazon Studios released the thriller 7500 after it had premiered in competition at Locarno Festival and was released in cinemas in Germany and Austria. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the main role, a co-pilot whose plane is hijacked. Tezel plays his girlfriend, stewardess Gökce.

In February 2021 ZDFneo originals released the 6-part miniseries Unbroken in which Tezel plays the main role, Alex, a tough cop trying to find her child after having been kidnapped. Already after the first week of streaming the TV series was announced to be ZDFneo's most successful TV series on ZDF's streaming channel ZDF Mediathek.

Tezel also wrote and directed the short film Phoenix (2020) starring Irish actors Killian Scott, Bríd Brennan and German actress Leonie Benesch which premiered at Max Ophüls Festival.

In 2023 Tezel's directorial debut, the romantic drama Falling Into Place, which she also wrote and starred in alongside Chris Fulton celebrated its European premiere in the first feature competition of the 27th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival where it was awarded the FIPRESCI award. The film went on to win several awards and is being released in several European countries, as well as in Australia and New Zealand.

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	Stronger 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 27 December 2019 as a 3-hour-long film. Spoken languages in the film are German and English. It was directed by Uli Edel. Aylin won the Bavarian TV Awards 2020 for her performance.
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 globally on Amazon Prime Video in June 2020.
2021	Unbroken	Unbroken	Alex (L)	German crime-drama miniseries about a young and tough cop, Alexandra Enders, who is nine months pregnant when she is being attacked and disappears. 6 days later she wakes up in a forest, full of blood and without her baby. She tries to find out what happened to her, mistrusting everyone around her, while struggling with her own inner demons. The search for her baby takes her on a journey into her own darkness. Aylin plays main role Alex. The 6-part miniseries was released in Germany on ZDFneo on 23 February 2021 and already a week later ZDF announced that the show is the most watched ZDFneo production ever on ZDF's streaming platform ZDF Mediathek.
2023	Falling Into Place	Falling Into Place	Kira (L)	A love story set in Scotland and London that follows romance between Kira and Ian, who met too briefly over a winter weekend while on the run from themselves. Aylin also wrote and directed the film.
2023	Weekend Rebels	Wochenendrebellen	Fatime (L)	Weekend Rebels is about the journey of a father and his autistic son to find the latter's favorite soccer team by visiting all 56 teams in their respective stadiums

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
2020	Bavarian TV Awards	Best Actress	The Master Butcher, original title: Der Club der singenden Metzger	Won
2021	Deutscher Fernsehpreis	Best Actress	Unbroken	Nominated
2021	Deutsche Akademie für Fernsehen	Best actress in a main role	Unbroken	Won
2023	Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival	FIPRESCI Award	Falling Into Place	Won
2024	Kinofest Lünen	Best Actress	Falling Into Place	Won
2024	Bavarian Film Awards	Best Newcomer Director	Falling Into Place	Won
2024	Festival del cinema tedesco	Audience Award	Falling Into Place	Won

References

[1] Fipresci Prize Tallinn Film Festival

[2] Screen Daily announcement key deals

External links

• Aylin Tezel at IMDb
• Represented by London Talent & Literary Agency Curtis Brown
• Represented by Berlin Talent Agency Die Agenten
• review Breaking Horizons at Reykjavik International Film Festival
• interview Tezel about her series "Unbroken" in Drama Quarterly February 2021