Born in Ankara in 1972, Özcan Deniz is a Turkish singer, actor and filmmaker who became a household name across the Turkish-speaking world. He first rose to fame as a romantic pop singer in the 1990s before crossing over into television with the hit series Sağır Oda (1999) and later the internationally successful romance Aşk-ı Memnu (2008), in which he played Behlül. On the big screen he wrote, directed and starred in the family melodrama Evim Sensin (2012), one of the biggest Turkish box-office hits of its year. He continues to move between music, television and film as one of Turkey's most recognizable multi-hyphenate stars.