Biyograficim
İlker Kızmaz

İlker Kızmaz

Actor · 51 years old

Emir in the series Umuda Kelepçe Vurulmaz

Profile

Age51
Birth dateSeptember 9, 1975
Birthplaceİzmir
ProfessionActor
Zodiac signVirgo
Eye colorBlue
EducationBahçeşehir University, acting training
SpouseAslı Türkel

Worked most often with

Filmography / Projects

İlker Kızmaz — Biography

İlker Kızmaz was born on September 9, 1975, in İzmir; after appearing on stage with private theaters there, he graduated from the Business Faculty of Anadolu University and, moving to İstanbul in 2004, trained as an actor at the Ekol Drama Art House and then at Bahçeşehir University.

He debuted in 2002 with small parts in Aslı ile Kerem, Yeter Anne and Candan Öte, then became known for Nihat Önal in Kanal D's Aşk-ı Memnu (2008-2010), a ratings-record hit. He entered film in 2009 with Levent Semerci's award-winning Nefes: Vatan Sağolsun; in 2012 he played Colonel Mustafa Kemal in Yeşim Sezgin's Çanakkale 1915, and in 2020 portrayed Atatürk again in Ya İstiklal Ya Ölüm. He also appeared with Pelin Akil, Engin Altan Düzyatan, Bensu Soral and Dolunay Soysert in the Kemal Tahir adaptations Kurt Kanunu and Yol Ayrımı.

He played Kenan Hoca in Yedi Güzel Adam and Halil in Benim Adım Gültepe in 2014-2015, and Sinan in Kalpazan in 2024. He married Aslı Türkel, met on set of Nefes: Vatan Sağolsun, in 2014; their daughter was born in 2016. He also enjoys aikido, horseback riding and kite surfing.

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Their work through different eyes

Series Binger A series devotee tracking character arcs, cast chemistry and season pacing.

Aşk-ı Memnu is the series that made İlker Kızmaz known to a wide audience; he plays Nihat Önal in this two-season mansion drama adapted from Halid Ziya's novel. The same actor turns up inside a historical epic as Arslantas in Uyanış: Büyük Selçuklu, and as the surgeon Bülent in the military-hospital drama Güneydoğudan Öyküler. Watched in that order, they suggest a television career that runs from the Bosphorus mansion to the sultan's council to a hospital on the frontier, and does not fit one genre.

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

What holds İlker Kızmaz's filmography back, in my view, is that he returns twice to the same iconic figure: Colonel Mustafa Kemal in Çanakkale 1915, then Atatürk in Ya İstiklal Ya Ölüm. Playing a figure of that stature often calls for a monumental stance, with little room for interpretation, doubt or human detail. A fictional character such as Nihat Önal in Aşk-ı Memnu gives an actor wider space in that respect. Period costume and ceremonial gravity risk overshadowing Kızmaz's acting.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

In Nefes: Vatan Sağolsun, as Srg. İlker, and in Güneydoğudan Öyküler, as the surgeon Bülent, İlker Kızmaz sits inside productions about military service and daily life in the southeast. Both build the world of people on duty far from home, and both belong to the interest popular culture of those years took in the experience of military service. Here Kızmaz is the face of the person doing a duty inside the system rather than of the hero, a social type that viewers around 2009 and 2010 would know well.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes on this person's screen work, written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader comments are below.

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