Deniz Öktem-Bektaş was born in the Netherlands in 1976. In 1994, she graduated from Üsküdar Imam-Hatip High School and in 2000 he graduated from Boğaziçi University, Department of English Language and Literature. She completed her master's degree in Communication, Culture and Technology at Georgetown University in the USA. During this period, she worked as an assistant in the Turkish Language Department and gave private Turkish lessons. In 2003, although she was admitted to the PhD programme on Calligraphy at the History Department of SOAS University in the UK, she became interested in Islamic calligraphy during her studies in the USA and started to take ruqah and naskh lessons from the calligrapher Muhammed Zekeriya. When she returned to Istanbul, she took lessons from Hasan Çelebi and Davut Bektaş and received her thuluth-naskh ijazah (authorisation) in 2007.

The artist won awards in naskh calligraphy at IRCICA's 7th International Calligraphy Competition and Sharjah Calligraphy Biennial. She was granted the success award in Islamic Calligraphy branch in the 17th State Turkish Decorative Arts Competition of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and came in the third place in the National Calligraphy Competition of the Directorate of Religious Affairs in 2015. In 2011, she took part in the project of writing the Holy Quran in Dubai and in the mushaf project prepared for Çamlıca Mosque.

Among the works translated by the artist are "Memories" (Arnold J. Toynbee) and "A Short History of Modern Türkiye" (Nicole & Hugh Pope). Today, the artist continues to produce works and gives international online calligraphy lessons.