Born in Istanbul in 1971, Birsel graduated from Bogazici University's Economics Division in 1994 and Columbia University's MFA program in Film Division in 1996. She began her career as a journalist then became the writer and the presenter of the TV show "gag". Afterwards she wrote and played the lead in TV sitcom Avrupa Yakasi (2004) from February 2002 until its final episode in June 2009. She is also the face of many brands for TV commercials such as Turkcell, Whirlpool and TTnet. Also writes a weekly column for the newspaper Sabah.