Mahir Günşiray

Mahir Günşiray — Biography

Mahir Günşiray began as a theater artist who acted and directed, and became one of Turkish television's familiar faces. He remains director and actor at Tiyatro Oyunevi, which he co-founded in 1996, while on screen he is remembered above all for businessman and villain roles. His part as Ural in the Netflix series Şahmaran brought him a wider audience in 2023-2024.

His link to film goes back to childhood: the son of actor and producer Orhan Günşiray, he first faced the camera at five in Oğlum Oğlum and appeared in Bebek in 1979. He studied at Hacettepe University's Ankara State Conservatory, took a master's degree at the University of Leeds and a proficiency in the arts doctorate at Mimar Sinan University. He acted at the Bursa and Istanbul State Theatres and at Theatre an der Ruhr in Germany. On television he started with Ayaşlı ve Kiracıları and Baharın Bittiği Yer, then played Girayhan Kırınlı in Sağır Oda, Ali İhsan in İffet, Stavro in Sürgün and Nihat Mazharoğlu in Çilek Kokusu; Bıçak Sırtı, Hanımın Çiftliği and Dila Hanım belong to the same period. In 2017 he played Hazım Egemen in Fazilet Hanım ve Kızları.

For his staging of Unutmak he received the Sanat Kurumu best director award in 2002-2003, and in 1989 the Theatre and TV Writers Association named him actor of the year. In 2026 he said that his friendship of forty years with Hatice Aslan had turned into a romance.