One of the very first women directors and scriptwriters in Turkey, Birsen Kaya was born in Istanbul in 1943. She completed her primary and secondary education in Beşiktaş. She then pursued a career in journalism as the film reporter for the Artist review. The first interview she conducted was with Neriman Köksal. During this period, she collaborated with the likes of Vedat Türkali, Ülkü Erakalın, and Agâh Özgüç, and met Halit Refiğ. She became Refiğ’s assistant on Gurbet Kuşları / Birds of Foreign Land in 1964. She went on as DA on numerous films, and later wrote scripts for adventure films. Among these scripts, the Western Çeko (1970) is the most remarkable. Completing Nazmi Özer’s unfinished film Kanlı Kader (1970) was her first directorial effort. She founded her own production company Ufuk Film. She directed 15 films, and alongside Bilge Olgaç and Cahide Sonku, she is credited as one of the first women directors in Turkey. The Dadaş Rıfat series, comprising of four films she also wrote, attained huge popular success. Her comic book adaptation Killing Ölüm Saçıyor! (1971), Vur Kır Geç (1972), and Hedefte Beş Adam (1972) made her one of the most popular directors of Yeşilçam, in a period marked by the prominence of the adventure genre.