Zara Yilmaz

She was born in Istanbul in January 15, 1976. In 1991 and 1993, Zara was first among female Turkish folk musical soloists in a nation-wide high school level competition of music and folk dance organized by the newspaper Milliyet. She completed her higher education in the Department of Vocal Music of Istanbul Technical University State Conservatory. In 1996, she passed the "qualified vocal artist" examination organized by TRT (Turkish Radio and Television Corporation) and started work as a contract Turkish folk singer. She acted and sang the role of Amber in the Yunus Emre Musical staged at Ataturk Cultural Center in 1997. In 1998, she published her album, Avuntu (Consolation), the product of 15 months' work. In the same year, she played a lead role with Tarik Akan in her first feature film, Eylul Firtinasi (September Storm), directed by Atif Yilmaz. She acted in the film Deli Yurek: Bumerang Cehennemi, in 2001. Zara was a principal actress in a series for the first time in 2003 in Gelin (Daughter in law), which consisted of 28 episodes and was broadcast at Kanal D. In 2004, her music video of AFIT, co-created with the Ministry of Public Works, was broadcast in the "Conscious Society to Natural Disasters" project. Zara was the program announcer of Zamani Geldi at Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) and Sali Sefasi at TV8.