Deniz Akçay

Born in İzmir in 1981, she graduated from the Cinema and Television Department at Ege University. She started her screenwriting career in 2000 as a co-writer while still a student. Since 2003, she has been writing and directing her own TV series and films for television, streaming platforms, and cinemas.

Her first feature film, Nobody’s Home, which she wrote and directed, premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2013 and went on to win 16 awards at both international and national festivals, including “Best Film,” “Best Debut Film,” and “Best Screenplay.”

In 2019, she served as head writer for three seasons of the TV series Evermore, which was nominated for an International Emmy Award. Her work on the show earned her the “Best Screenplay” award in Turkey.

In 2021, she wrote and directed the adaptation of The Affair for BluTV. During this period, she received personal mentorship from Gerald Sanoff on adapting series content between local and global markets.

For Netflix’s series The Club, which she co-created, she was trained by the Netflix LA creative department on adapting global streaming series codes to local projects. While creating the show, she also received creative consultancy from Rachel Manson in London, where she was based at the time.

In 2023, she was selected as one of five screenwriters from Turkey to participate in a Netflix writer’s room workshop in Prague, focusing on leadership in the writer’s room.

Her most recent Netflix project, Bir İhtimal Daha Var, starring renowned comedian Ata Demirer, is set for release in 2025.

Since 2010, she has been conducting seminars and teaching screenwriting workshops at prominent institutions like Boğaziçi University, 9 Eylül University, and Ege University. She also provides periodic script consultancy to national TV channels and production companies.