Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu (; born 21 August 1994) is a British actress, model and television personality of Turkish origin. After portraying the role of Isil in the Turkish

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

''Kuzey Yıldızı İlk Aşk'' in 2022, she won the eighth series of the ITV2 reality series '' Love Island'' alongside Davide Sanclimenti. Following her win, she starred in a travel series with Sanclimenti and competed in the fifteenth series of '' Dancing on Ice'' in 2023.

Life and career

Cülcüloğlu was born on 21 August 1994 in Islington,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

to her mother Sezer, and she has a younger brother, Arda. She moved to

Loughton Loughton () is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex. Part of the metropolitan and urban area of London, the town borders Chingford, Waltham Abbey, Theydon Bois, Chigwell and Buckhurst Hill, and is northeast of Chari ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

at the age of 10. Cülcüloğlu is of Turkish descent and splits her time between Essex and

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

. In 2011, Cülcüloğlu competed in

Miss Asia Pacific World Miss Asia Pacific World is an annual beauty pageant held in South Korea. It has been subject to a number of controversies over rankings, bribes, and breast augmentation surgeries. In the 2014 Miss Asia Pacific World competition, May Myat Noe of ...

, representing Ireland. She competed in various other beauty pageants before going on to study performing arts at the University of Central Lancashire, graduating in 2015. At the beginning of her career, Cülcüloğlu went by various stage names; Susie Hayzel, Su Hayzel and Su Ekin Cülcüloğlu. In 2020, Cülcüloğlu was cast in the Turkish television series ''Kuzey Yıldızı İlk Aşk'', in which she portrayed the role of Işıl, a photographer from London who saves the life of leading character Kuzey ( İsmail Demirci). She also portrayed a serial killer in a Turkish soap opera. In June 2022, Cülcüloğlu became a contestant on the eighth series of '' Love Island''. She entered the villa as a "bombshell" on Day 3. She won the series alongside Davide Sanclimenti. Following their win, they starred in a travel series on ITV2. In September 2022, she signed a deal with fashion retailer Oh Polly to become their brand ambassador. A month later, it was announced that Cülcüloğlu would compete in the fifteenth series of '' Dancing on Ice'' in 2023. She was paired with Brendyn Hatfield.

Filmography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cülcüloğlu, Ekin-Su 1994 births 21st-century English actresses Alumni of East 15 Acting School Alumni of the University of Central Lancashire English people of Turkish descent English soap opera actresses Living people Love Island (2015 TV series) contestants People from Islington (district) Reality show winners Television personalities from Essex