Canan Ergüder

Canan Ergüder — Biography

Canan Ergüder is a stage and television actress best known in Turkey as prosecutor Esra in Behzat Ç. Bir Ankara Polisiyesi. She built on that with Binbir Gece, Güllerin Savaşı and Menajerimi Ara, and more recently has appeared in İstanbul Ansiklopedisi, Aile and the film Sükût.

Her career took shape in the United States before Turkey. After Üsküdar American Academy she studied sociology and theater at Franklin and Marshall College, earned a master's through the Actors Studio Drama Program at The New School, and won lifetime membership of the Actors Studio. She performed on US stages for years and joined a Shakespeare workshop at LAMDA in London. At the 2007 Hoboken International Film Festival she won Best Supporting Actress for Shooting Johnson Roebling. That same year she came to Turkey and entered television with Bıçak Sırtı and Binbir Gece.

The turning point was Behzat Ç. in 2010: she played Esra for years, including in the spin-off film, and returned to the role in 2019 on a streaming platform. On stage, her part in Bayrak earned her the Most Successful Supporting Actress prize at the 13th Afife Theatre Awards. She also appeared in the films Son Umut (The Water Diviner) and Dar Elbise. In 2021 she announced herself that she had breast cancer.