Biography

Azra Akın (born 8 December 1981) is a Dutch-born Turkish model and actress. She is a beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss World 2002 and Miss Turkey 2002. 

Akın was born in Almelo, Netherlands, to Turkish parents. Akın's father (Nazım) and mother (Ayda) emigrated from Turkey to the Netherlands in 1971. Akın has one younger sister called 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, France where she reached the final 15. Akın continued modelling in Germany for the German catalogue Otto.

In 2002, Akın 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, London, which she also won. Akin accepted the tiara and $156,000 prize from the previous year's winner Agbani Darego. During her reign, Akın travelled to the United Kingdom, Turkey, the United States, New Zealand, Ireland, Jamaica, Australia, China and many more countries.

In 2002, three of the "Big Four" international pageant winners come from dominant Muslim countries: Džejla Glavović, who won at Miss Earth, Christina Sawaya of Lebanon, who won Miss International 2002, and Azra Akın of Turkey, who won Miss World 2002.

In 2003, Akın won a gold medal when she participated in the British reality TV show The Games.

In 2004, Akın modelled for the postcards of the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 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.

Akın speaks fluent Dutch, Turkish and English.

Information: Wikipedia