Azra Akın (born 8 December 1981) is a Turkish-Dutch actress, dancer, model and beauty queen who was crowned
Miss World 2002
Miss World 2002, the 52nd edition of the Miss World pageant, was held on 7 December 2002 at the Alexandra Palace in London, United Kingdom. It was initially intended to be staged in Abuja, but due to religious riots in the nearby city of Kadun ...
in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
on 7 December 2002. She is best known for series ''Yağmur Zamanı.''
Biography
Akın was born in
Almelo
Almelo () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the eastern Netherlands. The main population centres in the town are Aadorp, Almelo, Mariaparochie, and Bornerbroek.
Almelo has about 72,000 inhabitants in the middle o ...
, Netherlands, to Turkish parents. Her father (Nazım) and mother (Ayda) emigrated from Turkey to the Netherlands in 1971. Akın has one younger sister named Doruk.
In 1998, at the age of 17, Akın was selected
Elite Model of Turkey; she then participated in the Europe Elite Model competition in
Nice
Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million[Otto
Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants '' Audo'', '' Odo'', '' Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity".
The name is recorded fr ...]
.
In 2002, Azra won
Star TV's Miss Turkey. Thus, she represented Turkey in the Miss World beauty pageant which was held on December 7, 2002, at
Alexandra Palace
Alexandra Palace is an entertainment and sports venue in North London, situated between Wood Green and Muswell Hill in the London Borough of Haringey. A listed building, Grade II listed building, it is built on the site of Tottenham Wood and th ...
, London, which she also won.
Akin accepted the tiara and $156,000 prize from the previous year's winner
Agbani Darego
Chief Ibiagbanidokibubo Asenite 'Agbani' Darego, MFR (born 22 December 1982) is a Nigerian model and beauty queen who was crowned Miss World 2001. She was the first black African to win Miss World.
Early life
Abonnema-native Darego was born i ...
.
During her reign, Akın travelled to the United Kingdom, Turkey, the United States, New Zealand, Ireland, Jamaica, Australia, China and many more countries.
In 2003, she won a
gold medal
A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture.
Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...
when she participated in the British reality TV sports game show ''
The Games''.
In 2004, Akın modelled for the postcards of the
Eurovision Song Contest 2004
The Eurovision Song Contest 2004 was the 49th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Istanbul, Turkey, following the country's victory at the with the song " Everyway That I Can" by Sertab Erener. Organised by the European B ...
which were shown before each song.
In 2010, she won on the TV dance show ''Yok Boyle Dans'', the Turkish version of ''
Dancing With the Stars
''Strictly Come Dancing (widely known as Dancing with the Stars)'' is an international television franchise based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing,'' itself a successor to the show ''Come Dancing'' (1950–1998) ...
''.
In 2017, she married Turkish male dancer and model Atakan Koru. The couple has two children.
Filmography
References
External links
*
* (suspended site)
Azra Akın Pictures at TurkishStarsDaily.com
1981 births
Living people
Dutch people of Turkish descent
Miss Turkey winners
Miss World 2002 delegates
Miss World winners
People from Almelo
Reality show winners
Turkish film actresses
Turkish female models
Turkish television actresses
Dutch emigrants to Turkey
Dutch beauty pageant winners
Turkish beauty pageant winners
20th-century Turkish actresses
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