Özay developed multiple interests since childhood, writing stories and plays for children as well as poetry, and all at the same time engaging in performing arts and sports.

She did her secondary studies in Fenerbahçe High School and then registered in the Conservatory Music and Theatre Department of Haliç University, which she still attends between professional engagements.

She retained an interest in arts also through this period and attended ballet and guitar courses in Istanbul University State Conservatory.

It was around this time that her biography and lifestyle was covered by a team from BBC Television for a programme in the cycle of This World series in which she was the representative from Turkey, alongside prominent political figures from other Islamic countries.

Another landmark of her television career came when she took part in the Turkish version of the game show The Wheel of Fortune assisting the presenter Mehmet Ali Erbil.

She had a part in Dün Gece Ormanda Çok Komik Birşey Oldu (Something funny happened in the woods yesternight) under the theater director Ferhan Şensoy and the play was a success.

She pursued her theatre career with the play Tanıştırayım, Burası Türkiye (Let Me Introduce You to Turkey), a cabaret for which she had chosen the title herself and in which she also sang a song.

With the catalogue's revenues, Tuğba Özay financed the reconstruction of a school in the town of Çubuk near Ankara which was destroyed by a 2004 hurricane disaster.

Back in 2003, Özay had already made the headlines in relation to Iraq when she became the first international artist to have succeeded in obtaining a permission for shooting a video clip in one of the palaces of the country's ex-dictator.

Also in 2009, she made a notable appearance on the catwalk as the head model during a night organized by Prince Albert of Monaco featuring works by the South African clothes designer Terrence Bray, in an event which was widely covered by the press.

[5] In 2004, Özay was sentenced to three months in prison for insulting police officers at the full body scanner in İzmir Adnan Menderes Airport as she was returning form a presentation abroad.

[6] In 2007, Özay was detained for five and half months during a trial with 51 suspects accused of forming an armed criminal organization for financial profit.