İsmail Küçükkaya

İsmail Küçükkaya — Biography

İsmail Küçükkaya is a journalist and author who presented Fox TV's morning program Çalar Saat for nine years and, before that, served as editor-in-chief of the newspaper Akşam. From 2022 he made programs for Halk TV, and in autumn 2025 he moved to TV100.

His career began in the press: as a student, in 1991, he joined Hürriyet as a reporter, and in 1993 he graduated from Gazi University's journalism department. After Sabah and Star he began writing a column for Akşam in 2000; in 2003 he became SkyTürk's Ankara representative, in November 2008 he was named Akşam's editor-in-chief, and he left that post in June 2013. His screen career started at Fox TV in September 2013, where he presented Çalar Saat without a break and in 2019 moderated a joint broadcast for the Istanbul mayoral election. In 2022 he moved to Halk TV, hosting İsmail Küçükkaya ile Yeni Bir Sabah and Aslında; in September 2025 he left and began YeniGün on TV100, which was taken off the air eleven days later.

His books include Cumhuriyetimize Dair, Cumhuriyet'in İlk Yüzyılı (written with İlber Ortaylı), Korkma and Biraz Cesaret. In 2017 he was named television presenter of the year at the Türkiye Altın Marka Awards, and in 2018 he won the MGD award for best morning news program.