She later worked as a freelancer and trainee, and was, for a time, an early-morning presenter at the local radio station Antenne Münster [de].

[2] In a 2018 survey conducted by Forsa Institute, she was voted one of Germany's most trusted news presenters.

[3] In addition to her role as presenter, Atalay wrote articles for the German business magazine Plusminus from 2014.

[4] In June 2021, German private TV channel RTL announced that Atalay would be starting as news anchor in August 2021.

[5] Alongside Peter Kloeppel, she moderated one of three TV election debates between the three candidates to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel – Annalena Baerbock, Armin Laschet and Olaf Scholz – ahead of the 2021 elections, which was aired live on both RTL and n-tv during prime-time.