Kıvanç Tatlıtuğ

Kıvanç Tatlıtuğ — Biography

Kıvanç Tatlıtuğ moved from modeling into acting and became one of the best-known leading men of Turkish television. He made his name as Behlül Haznedar in Aşk-ı Memnu, as Kuzey in Kuzey Güney and as Kurt Seyit in Kurt Seyit ve Şura, and has won the Golden Butterfly for best actor four times.

Sport and the catwalk came before acting. He played basketball for several Adana clubs and then for Ülkerspor, Beşiktaş and Fenerbahçe until a training injury ended that career. A modeling advertisement his mother saw took him to the runway: in 2002 he was named Best Model of Turkey and then Best Model of the World, and the French agency Success brought him to Paris. He returned on television offers and studied acting with Okan Bayülgen and Laçin Ceylan. Gümüş (2005), opposite Songül Öden, became the first Turkish series sold to the Middle East. The turning point was Aşk-ı Memnu (2008-2010) with Beren Saat; Kuzey Güney (2011-2013) followed. On film he played the poet Muzaffer Tayyip Uslu in Kelebeğin Rüyası (2013). Cesur ve Güzel (2016-17), Çarpışma (2018) and Aile (2023) were later leading roles, and he played Arman in Into the Night (2021) and Yakamoz S-245 (2022).

His family is of Albanian and Bosniak descent on his father's side and from Edirne on his mother's, and has run a bakery in Adana for over a century. Kelebeğin Rüyası brought him the Yeşilçam and SİYAD awards. He married in 2016 and had a son in 2022.