Atalla Ayan was born in Belem, Brazil, and studied at the Carlos Gomes Conservatory in his native city. At the age of 21 he made his debut as Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi and a year later made his European debut as Rodolfo in La Bohème in Athens, in a production directed by Graham Vick. With the signature role of Rodolfo, Atalla Ayan made his debut in such theatres as the Opéra National de Paris, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, Hungarian State Opera in Budapest, Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm,  Baden-Baden Festival and took part in productions of La Bohème at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Semperoper Dresden, Bayerische Staatsoper, Cologne Opera and Teatro Municipal de São Paulo.

In the 2007/8 season he joined the Scuola dell’Opera Italiana in Bologna, where he appeared at the Teatro Comunale as Ruggero in La Rondine conducted by José Cura. In the 2009/10 season, he became a member of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artists Development program and in July 2011 he made a surprise debut with the company, singing five arias in the opening Summer Concert in Central Park. He followed this with performances at the Metropolitan Opera as Alfredo in La Traviata, Christian in Alfano’s Cyrano de Bergerac and as Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi.

A member of the ensemble of the Staatsoper Stuttgart since the 2011/12 season, he has appeared there in many of the roles he is known for internationally. He has also had the opportunity to add new roles to his repertoire, such as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Fenton in Falstaff, Lensky in Eugene Onegin, Alfred in Die Fledermaus, Ismaele in Nabucco, Duca di Mantova in Rigoletto, and most recently, the title roles in Gounod's Faust and Offenbach's Les Contes d’Hoffmann as well as Cavaradossi in Tosca, marking a natural move towards a heavier repertoire which will continue in the coming season with the debut as Manrico in a new production of Il Trovatore.

With his italianate colour and easy top, Atalla Ayan has been widely in demand in the major theatres in the world, where he sung many of the Italian repertoire’s most famous lyric tenor roles, such as Nemorino in L'Elisir d'amore (Bayerische Staatsoper, La Scala, Teatro Comunale di Bologna), Rodolfo in La Bohème (most recently at the Semperoper Dresden), Ruggero in La Rondine (Deutsche Oper Berlin) and one of his signature roles, Alfredo in La Traviata, at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa under Fabio Luisi, at the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, San Francisco Opera, Den Norske Opera in Oslo and Glyndebourne Festival.

Particularly at home also in the French repertoire, in addition to Faust and Hoffmann, recent seasons have seen him singing Des Grieux in Massenet's Manon at the Opéra National de Paris and in Cologne, as well as the title role in Werther and Don José in Carmen in Stuttgart.

Highlights of his coming season see him as Manrico in a new production of Il Trovatore in Stuttgart, Des Grieux in Massenet's Manon at the Teatro Regio in Turin, Don José in Carmen at the New National Theatre in Tokyo and Cavardossi in Tosca in both Stuttgart and Prague.