Ayda Aktay was born in Ankara in 1959. She is a graduate of Istanbul University Faculty of Letters Psychology Department. She started taking marbling classes from Nusret Hepgül in 1989, and continued with Fuat Başar through a master-apprentice relationship in 1990. She reinforced her marbling training with the classes she took from İlker Selimler in 2014. Aktay has held many personal exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions both at home and abroad since 1990.