Fatih Portakal

Fatih Portakal — Biography

Fatih Portakal (born 2 February 1968 in Nazilli, Aydın) is a Turkish journalist, news anchor and YouTuber. He completed primary school in Nazilli and secondary school at İzmir Atatürk High School, then studied at the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences of İstanbul University. In 1994 he went to Australia for graduate study and language training, running a well-known restaurant there for a time before returning to Turkey in 1997.

He worked as a reporter at Star TV from 1997 to 2005, then joined the Kanal D news team on the invitation of Mehmet Ali Birand, working alongside Ayşenur Arslan; he also hosted the radio program Fatih Portakal'la Konuşan Türkiye on Best FM. In May 2010 he moved to Fox TV on the invitation of İrfan Değirmenci, presenting the morning program Çalar Saat, then took over the main Fox evening bulletin in 2013 after Nazlı Tolga's departure and continued in the role until 2020. He was named Best Male News Anchor at both the 43rd and 44th Golden Butterfly Awards. He later founded his own YouTube channel, "Fatih Portakal TV," before joining Sözcü TV in 2023, where he presented the main evening bulletin until June 2025. He has published two books, Ses'SİZ (2012) and Aklımla Dalga Geçme (2016). He is married to Armağan Portakal.