Damla Sönmez
Tilya Damla Sönmez (born 3 May 1987) is a Turkish film, theatre and television actress. She gained worldwide recognition for her movies "Sibel" and "I Am You". Her prominent TV roles include Ceylan in "Bir Aşk Hikayesi", Gülru in "Güllerin Savaşı", and Efsun in "Çukur". Early life and education. Damla Sönmez is an only child born to parents of Circassian descent. Her father is an engineer and programmer, and her mother works as an architect. Her biggest passion as a child was theater and cinema. She began to study at theater studios early on. During school years, Damla  constantly played on stage, and began to appear in commercials on television. In those years she was promised a great future already. After graduating from Saint Joseph French High School in Istanbul, she was accepted to Université de La Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris in the Theatre department. She studied for a year in Paris before being awarded a scholarship to the Yeditepe University Fine Arts Theatre Department in Istanbul. Sönmez also studied semi-timed 2 years violin and 1 year piano in Mimar Sinan University State Conservatory. She had later attended Jillian O’Dowd's Contemporary Acting Workshop at the London Dramatic  School of Arts and worked with Stuart Burney at the Black Nexxus Academy in New York. Career. Films. In 2009, she starred in "Bornova Bornova" and won the "Best Supporting Actress" at the 46th Golden Orange Film Festival, alongside other awards at the Sadri Alışık Awards and the Flying Broom International Women's Film Festival. She became the Young President of the festival at the 18th Broom Broom Women Films Festival in 2015 and she won the 21st Golden Boll Film Festival and the Best Actress Award at the Milano International Film Festival (MIFF) for her role in the film  Sea Level (Deniz Seviyesi). Television series. In her television career, she played supporting roles in hit series "Emret Komutanım", "Gece Gündüz", and "Türkan". A turning point in her television career was when she was cast as a bride who suffers from loss of memory in the series "Şubat". Her first leading role was "Bir Aşk Hikayesi", an adaptation of "I'm Sorry, I Love You," where she played the role of Ceylan alongside actor Seçkin Özdemir"." In 2014, she appeared on screen as the complex character Gülru in the soap opera "Güllerin Savaşı", which was very successful in Peru and  Argentina, distributed as "Guerra De Rosas". In 2019, she joined season 3 of "Çukur" portraying Efsun Kent, a character that gained a lot of media attention. Sönmez sang many classic Turkish arabesque songs as part of her role in "Çukur" including "Durdurun Dünyayı", "Su Ver Leyla", "Sen Affetsen Ben Affetmem", "Sorma", and "Son Mektup". Later on in 2021, it was announced she will take part in"Aziz" TV series as a main character (dilruba) alongside actor Murat Yıldırım. Internet series. Damla Sönmez also acted in several internet series. In 2017, she played a main role (Pınar) in episode 3 of BluTV 's "7 Yüz" (7 Faces). In 2020, she portrayed Ana in Netflix's historical docudrama "". In 2021, she joined season 2 of BluTV's hit series "Saygı" (Respect) as the main character Arya Şahin, a public prosecutor.