Leyla Hazal Kaya (born 1 October 1990) is a Turkish actress best known for Aşki Memnu, Adını Feriha Koydum, Bizim Hikaye and Midnight at the Pera Palace.
Kaya is one of Turkey's highest-paid actresses.
2006
Kaya started her acting career in 2006 with TV series Genco.
She played the character of Özge (Gülay Erkaya).
She had guest roles in fantasy series Acemi Cadı of Turkish version "Sabrina Teenage Witch", popular series Sıla, "Taşların Sırrı".
2008
In 2008, Kaya played Nihal Ziyagil in a modern-day adaptation of the novel Aşk-ı Memnu, written by Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil.
co-starring Kıvanç Tatlıtuğ and Beren Saat.
2009
She attended Gaziosmanpaşa elementary school and graduated in 2009 from the Liceo Italiano di Istanbul.
She enrolled in Istanbul Bilgi University for her higher education.
Her parents, who are both lawyers, divorced when she was 7 years old.
She was introduced to the art and acting world at a very young age, and as a child she took ballet and violin lessons for 7 years.
Kaya speaks Italian and English fluently, in addition to her native language Turkish.
She was also said to be learning a fourth language, German.
2011
She is best known for playing the role of Feriha Sarrafoglu, Adını Feriha Koydum (2011–2012) and won 2nd Crystal Mouse Media Awards for Best Actress.
The series had one of the highest TV ratings in Turkey.
She had her cinematic debut in Selçuk Aydemir's movie Çalgı Çengi in 2011.
At the same time she took lessons from Ayla Algan in drama.
She then joined Ümit Çırak Modern Acting Techniques Workshop and took acting lessons from Ümit Çırak himself.
Kaya's turning point came when she starring in the first two seasons of the TV series Adını Feriha Koydum (2011) as the lead character, Feriha Yilmaz.
She played the role of a porter's daughter trapped between two lives and falls in love with the most popular student at her university, a rich and handsome boy "Emir Sarrafoğlu" (Çağatay Ulusoy).
The series had one of the highest TV ratings in Turkey and received highly acclaimed.
Later, together with her mother Ayşegül Kaya, she appeared in the commercials for Bingo.
2012
In the late 2012, she left the cast of Adını Feriha Koydum and starred in a new series called Son Yaz Balkanlar 1912, portraying the character Emine.
However, the series ended after a few episodes due to low ratings.
2013
She later appeared in the 2013 series A.Ş.K and played the character of Azra Özak, a tennis coach.
That series also ended after 13 episodes.
2015
She received several accolades and was the only Turkish recipient of the "Lebanon Awards 2015" award.
She made her acting debut with a guest role in Acemi Cadı.
Kaya gain popularity for Nihal Ziyagil in a modern-day adaptation of the novel Aşk-ı Memnu, written by Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil.
In 2015 she appeared in Maral: En Güzel Hikayem, opposite Aras Bulut İynemli.
She played the leading character Maral Erdem.
After a break of one year, she starred in TV show Bizim Hikaye (in English: Our Story), which is the Turkish adaptation of the American TV series Shameless.
In this TV show Kaya plays "Filiz Elibol Aktan", (a young girl forced to take care of her five younger siblings after her mother left the lower-class family) opposite actor Burak Deniz.
Writing for Vatan, "She reacted positively to Hazal Kaya's acting, stating while watching Filiz on the screen".
2017
She further known for playing Filiz Elibol in Bizim Hikaye (inspired by the British TV show Shameless) (2017–2019) for which she received highly acclaimed and Latina Turkish Awards for Best Actress respectively.
Kaya explore into the webseries world with the time travel historical drama series Midnight at the Pera Palace (2022) playing Esra / Peride.
The show was premiered on Netflix.
2019
She is married to actor Ali Atay in 2019 with whom she has two children.
Kaya was born in Konya, Turkey.
The series received positive response and kaya's performance was highly acclaimed and teamed as "remarkable" and received several accolades including 19th Internet Media Best of the Year Awards for Best Actress and Latina Turkish Awards for Best Series Pair (Burak Deniz).
