Emre Kınay

Emre Kınay — Biography

Emre Kınay was born on 5 March 1970 in Istanbul; his father was producer Feridun Kınay, his mother is theatre actress Remziye Kınay, and his grandfather was Aleppo's last Ottoman military attaché, Arap Halit. His mother's side is Circassian and his father's Arab and Albanian; he is the older brother of composer Erdem Kınay. He took up theatre in high school and graduated from Mimar Sinan University State Conservatory's theatre department in 1995; as a student he joined Bakırköy Municipal Theatres at Zeliha Berksoy's invitation, then Dostlar Tiyatrosu. He still stages plays at Duru Tiyatro, which he founded in 2005, and won the Afife Theatre Award for Best Actor for Kara Sohbet (2006) and the Istanbul Film Festival's Best Actor award for İnşaat (2004). On screen he became known for Erkan Ağa in Yılan Hikayesi, Yusuf in Yeditepe İstanbul, and a father of three in İki Aile, later appearing in Güneşin Kızları, Kara Yazı, Sevgili Geçmiş, Tozluyaka and Dönence. In 2019 he ran for mayor of Kadıköy for the İYİ Party and finished third. He was married to actress Emine Ün from 2004 to 2009, with a daughter, Duru, born in 2005. Since January 2025 he has worked as a real estate agent in London.