Zeynep Tuğçe Bayat was born on February 8, 1990 in Mersin. Turkish TV series, cinema, theater actress and musician.
Name: Zeynep Tuğçe Bayat
Date of Birth: February 8, 1990
Birthplace: Mersin
Height: 1.67 m.
Weight: 55 kilos
Sign: Aquarius
Eye Color: Green
Hair color: brown
Spouse: Cansel Elçin
Siblings: Tutku Bayat
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zeyneptugcebayat/
Pets: She has a cat.
Family: She was born in Mersin, grew up, her family is engaged in organic farming. She has an older sister. She married Cansel Elçin, who is an actor like her, on August 23, 2020.
Childhood years: From an early age, she was extremely curious about acting. She started to take an active part in the theater branches of the school during her high school years. In the following process, she started to take small roles in some local projects, making herself much more experienced in this sense. “I was going to kindergarten. We went to the cinema. I can’t forget the first time I saw the big screen. I am very impressed. I saw the advertisements of Mersin Municipality Theater in secondary school. I was 12 years old. I auditioned even though older people were looking for it. They were very surprised, but they took me with them. I started training there and acting in their games at a young age. I knew I wanted to be an acter since I was very young, but because I lived in a small city, my opportunities were limited. I loved school, my classes were also good. I thought that if I get a good degree in a good university, I can go to Istanbul. That’s what happened. But I started spending more time in the theater than at school. Although I was interested in almost every field of art, I thought that I did not have the ability to paint. I even had my sister do my painting homework in primary school. She also loved to make them. It would do very well. I would go to my room and try to write poetry and sing. But one day I started to admire a cartoon character and spent hours drawing it without getting up. When I finished, no one believed I did it, not even me! So I could draw when there was something I really wanted to do! After that day, whenever I try to start something new and have a fear before I start, I remember that childhood memory and say to myself; ‘If you really want to do it and enjoy it, you will do it. Do not be afraid. Just start, the rest will come.’”
Education life: Graduated from Marmara University Faculty of Law. Then she graduated from Anadolu University State Conservatory Theater Department with her dream of acting. At the same time, she went to Spain for acting training and received professional acting training.
Career development: While studying at the Faculty of Law, she worked as a director assistant and acting in private theaters in Istanbul. She acted in various TV series and commercials. She started working in one of the theaters she loved. “I worked in the lighting, decor and costume departments of the theater for four years. Finally, when I said assistant director, I also graduated from the Faculty of Law. I had a three-and-a-half-month adventure as a lawyer. My family guided me to study law. I finished school as soon as possible before completing school to become an actress. After the law was over, I started the Eskişehir Anadolu University State Conservatory Theater Department. In the second year, I went to Spain with a student exchange. I learned language. I acted in the Spanish game. I also participated in the test shots in a foreign language.”
The first step into acting: She started her television adventure in 2007 with the TV series ‘Arka Sıradakiler’.
Which project did it shine with? She attracted attention with her character “Pelin” in the TV series “Yıldız Masalı”.
Personality traits: The most dominant personality traits are being hardworking and curious. “I am a determined person. I don’t run away at the first difficulty that comes my way. I’ll go over it, I want to do it in the best way possible. Actually, this journey makes me happy more than the result. Of course, when the result was not happy, I also learned to rest, quit and give up. It is not right to follow something blindly like that.”
Personal development: She has a personality that is always interested in learning new things and improving herself. “True luck or great luck comes once or twice in one’s life. So when that chance comes, I am improving myself so that I can make good use of it. I’m learning languages, I’m into music and sports. And I try to create my own luck as much as possible. Because I think success is not a coincidence, of course, permanent ones. I’m learning a language. I know English and Spanish. I am currently improving my French. I’m taking classes, but it’s not enough to really get ahead. It is very important to make time outside of the classroom. There’s also music. I compose songs, I sing. I’m acting a little piano. When sports and travel at every opportunity are added to all this, I don’t know any such thing as free time.”
Mindset: She thinks she learns something else from every new character she acts. “Sometimes I discover features in me that I hadn’t noticed before, and sometimes I experience things I could never experience. An exciting, routine job. It always intrigues me as a child. That means learning new things. I’ve also been taking notes since I was little, I’ve been walking around with a small agenda in my bag. I mostly write what I do, not what I will do. I wouldn’t call it a diary, but it’s a kind of logbook. I love flipping through old notebooks from time to time. I don’t know how many notebooks I have since I’ve been doing it since I was a kid.”
Source of happiness: She states that the bravest move she made in her life was to decide to go to Spain, and she is happy to have done so. Going to Spain was one of my bravest moves. Where I went, no one spoke English. I didn’t know Spanish either. I worked in restaurants and doner shops to cover my education expenses on my own. I made mucver and rice pudding in a Turkish restaurant.”
Her view on love: “If love was something we could choose when we wanted and give up whenever we wanted, these would not be movies, novels or songs in my opinion. I think the secret of a long relationship is love and respect. It may sound cliché, but this is the case in every relationship, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a business relationship or a friendship relationship. I have a good family and friends, but inside I was always alone and alone. I would not accept help or support from anyone, I would handle everything myself. With Cansel, we became like two halves of a whole. I’m done. We met for the first time in 2010, on the set of the TV series “Gönülçelen”. I was studying in the last year of the Faculty of Law, while I was working in the theater. My goal was to become an actress. I acted Cansel’s student in that series. I didn’t know his background and I was thinking ‘What a cocky man’ because of his speeches. We acted like 20 episodes. When the set was over, she gave his number. I said to myself, ‘What am I going to call you, you bitch!’ I got the number but we never spoke again. Many years later, I was sitting in a cafe near my house. We met by chance. I entered the cafe and saw Cansel. I thought, ‘If she doesn’t know me, at least’. I had finished the conservatory and started acting Shakespeare’s ‘The Storm’. She was so impressed with it, she took me more seriously. She wanted to come to the game, so over time our relationship started. On my birthday she said, “I love you so much, I want you to be with me for the rest of my life” and put a ring on my finger. She didn’t say, ‘Will you marry me?’ or something, but we just looked at each other with a ring on my finger. I said, I guess the French propose marriage like this. It remained so. Also, I don’t look at it as a single stone. There are more important things to me. Marriage can never be the ultimate goal for a woman. At least it wasn’t something I had in mind.”
Music Career: There are lyrics and single works, new ones will come. “I guess I’ll keep writing until whoever is talking in my head shuts up. Besides, she knows how much I love her, so I don’t think she’s going to leave me. New songs are coming soon, I’m in an intense preparation phase. I’m not in a hurry, but I want to be determined. I am an education oriented person. If I come across someone saying that I have produced something on a subject, I believe that it is necessary to spend some time. Otherwise, everyone in the world is an actor, everyone is a musician. If everything is that easy, the quality of the works that come out decreases, this is a great injustice to those who do this job properly, and most of all, it is unfair to the buyers of the works you produce.
First feature film: Ender Mıhlar / Şansımı Seveyim
Her outlook on life: She thinks that success will only be possible with loving what you do and being motivated. “I’ve seen a lot of things that I thought were bad luck until today were actually big luck. I don’t panic anymore, I say the universe knows something. My life motto; I can say that every year I go to a place I have never seen or learn something I never knew.”
Her view of business life: She thinks that being a good actress is an advantage, not a beauty for the screen. “Every society has a different understanding of beauty. The perception of beauty is very variable, especially today. Everyone looks alike lately. I think the advantage for the screen is to be yourself and a good actress, not beautiful, but a good actress. I think success is not a coincidence, I try to create my own luck. Keeping up with the times is also important. I mean not chasing the popular, even if it’s temporary. Observing the change with the help of the mind and intuition and developing with the developing. The best part of digital projects is to reach more people more easily and quickly. What actress wouldn’t want that? Still, as an actress who loves her profession, the whole project is what interests me the most. Script, character, director, producer. Not only the platform on which it will be published, but all of them are very important. Already, the audience of the digital platform has started to become more selective. This makes things even better. It’s a nice cycle.”
Career plan: Being involved in an international film project is one of her most wanted things. That’s why she never neglects to improve her foreign language. “However, there are Turkish directors who have produced very successful works at the international level in the recent period of Turkish cinema. I look forward to the chance to work with anyone. As an actress, I want to act almost any role, of course, but acting a musician taught me a lot. I also want to experience a tough and angular character that I have not acted before. Theatre, motion picture and television; all three have their place. Putting everything aside on stage and being in the here and now can be the hardest thing in the world. That’s why theater gives me a completely different pleasure. Cinema means immortality. It’s like a family album that you keep carefully. Television is also the shortest bridge connecting the audience and the actress. They’re all interconnected. At the same time, there is a jewelry brand called More Design Objects, which I partnered with my sister, and it is a special pleasure for me to take care of her. My sister Tutku is a designer of industrial products. She was doing a master’s degree in the same field in Milan. At that time, I was studying acting in Spain. We used to visit each other frequently and visit museums and fairs together. Jewelry and accessory design entered her mind during this time. When we both returned to Istanbul, Tutku immediately rushed to the workshops and started making her own jewelry! We used to wear what we did first, and it started to attract the attention of everyone around us. Everyone was asking which brand these designs belonged to. I also liked this situation. We decided to build a brand together. Passion would do the designs, and I would support her in all the rest. We started and it’s going pretty well now.”
Male attractiveness criterion: It gives great importance to intelligence and equipment. “I don’t like lazy people. I am very energetic, it is difficult to keep up with me. Cansel has a lot of life energy. Her equipment impressed me as well. A man who opened my mind.”
Which movie was she influenced by? ‘Persona’ movie directed by Ingmar Bergman
Relationship with nature: She believes in the great power of nature. “Thanks to my family, I realized very early on that physical and mental health is a whole and that we need to look at nature itself, not too far away. My family is engaged in organic farming, I go whenever I have the opportunity, I plant, I mow, I am with animals, I eat additive-free, organic products. But when I come back to city life due to my job, I feel that my body is getting sick and my soul is adapting to it. I can only stop this with regular exercise and a proper diet. I train with the EMS system two days a week, I usually cook my own food with products grown by my family.
How does she keeps shape? She exercises regularly and eats healthy. “I don’t think I could handle this intense pace any other way! Moreover, I do not like the winter months at all, as soon as I stop exercising and eating healthy, I cannot wake up in the morning, I feel tired all the time during the day and I cannot do my work in my busy schedule. As soon as I leave my own diet, I feel uncomfortable during the day, my sleep quality decreases, and I have difficulty in managing stress. I created this diet, which made me feel good, in three years by taking the opinion of experts and listening to myself and my body. There’s still a bit of good, I feel. After getting used to mindful eating, my life has changed a lot. My sleep is better quality, my energy does not run out during the day. Apart from what you eat, when you eat is also important. I try not to eat as much as possible between 06:00 in the evening and 10:00 in the morning. I believe that I will improve and feel better by continuing to research, read and try without forcing myself.”
What is her favorite city/country in the whole world? Seville / Spain
Three things she always has in her bag? Notepad, pen, lip balm.
Is she like cats or dogs? “Cats but dogs have their place too.”
What is her biggest phobia? Something happens to her loved ones.
TV SERIES
2009 – Arka Sıradakiler / Öğrenci
2010 /2011- Gönülçelen / Nevra
2011 – Yıldız Masalı / Pelin
2014 – Ah Neriman / Yeşim
2015 – Çilek Kokusu / Gonca
2016 /2017- Seviyor Sevmiyor / Buket
2019 /2020- Afili Aşk / Ceyda Aran
2020/2021- Kuruluş Osman / Targun Hatun
2021- Senkron
CINEMA MOVIES
2018- Akvaryum / Short Movie
2017- Şansımı Seveyim/ Yaprak
THEATER GAMES
2018- Closer / Actress
2017- Fırtına / Miranda
AWARDS
2019- Ekin Yazın Dostları Tiyatro Ödülleri / Actress / Closer
SONGS
2015 – Küçük Şeyler
2016 – Karlar Kraliçesi