Hülya Avşar


Hülya Avşar is a Turkish actress, singer, businesswoman, columnist, fashion designer, magazine editor, and former beauty pageant titleholder of Kurdish and Turkish origin.

Education and career

She graduated from Ankara Cumhuriyet Lisesi and started swimming professionally for DSI. In 1982, she and her family moved to Istanbul. Avşar attended a beauty pageant organized by Bulvar magazine, which she finished first. Later, the organization revoked her crown when it was discovered that she had been married for a brief period. In 1983, she debuted as an actress in the movie Haram. In the following years, she starred in over 70 films and won the Best Actress prize in the 18th Moscow International Film Festival. In addition to this, she launched a singing career that saw a nationwide concert tour, the release of eight albums and two singles.
In 2000, Avşar won the Best Female Singer award by Kral TV. Later that same year, she wrote for Günaydın newspaper as a columnist. Avşar was also the editor of Hülya. She plays tennis on an amateur basis and won a championship in the TED 2001 tennis tournament. She is also a television personality who served as a coach and judge for the first two seasons of The Voice from 2011 through 2013.
Avşar also has been a judge on Turkey's Got Talent since 2009. Hülya Avşar was the editor-in-chief of the magazine Hülya, a position she has held for 8 years. She is also the founder of the Turkish "by H" luxury brand, not to be confused with the similarly named New York-based clothing store.

Personal life

Hülya Avşar was born in Edremit, Balıkesir, to a Kurdish father from Ardahan and a Turkish mother from Edremit. A part of her maternal family is of Ottoman Turkish descent who immigrated from Crete, Greece. Other part of her maternal family is of Yörük descent, which is a Turkic ethnic subgroup. In a television show she told that her father's Kurdish name is Ello, and her Kurdish birth name is Malakan. In 1979 Avşar married Mehmet Tecirli, an engineering student; however, they divorced shortly after. Avşar married for a second time in 1997 to Kaya Çilingiroğlu which ended in divorce in 2005; they have one daughter named Zehra. She has also dated former 1987-88 European Golden Shoe football player Tanju Çolak and businessman Sadettin Saran between 2007-10.

Discography

Studio albums

;As lead artist
;As featured artist

Films

TV series