Mert Fırat

Mert Fırat — Biography

The son of Nihat Fırat, a well-known arabesque singer of the 1980s, Mert Fırat came into the world in Ankara on 10 January 1981, with Arab ancestry from Aleppo and Damascus on his father's side and Caucasian roots on his mother's. He was active in school drama from a young age, then studied radio and television in Sweden before going back to Ankara and finishing a theatre degree at the city's university, within its Faculty of Language, History and Geography. Between 2001 and 2005 he performed at the Ankara State Theatre in productions including Crime and Punishment and Sheikh Bedreddin, then won a place at Oyun Atölyesi's audition for The Taming of the Shrew in 2006 and settled in Istanbul. His screen career opened with Bizim Evin Halleri, and Binbir Gece and Kapalıçarşı brought him wide recognition. Playing Onur in a script written together with İlksen Başarır, Başka Dilde Aşk (2009) gave him his breakthrough and won a screenwriting prize at the Ankara Film Festival; he then took the role of Erdem in a 2010 film, Atlıkarınca, that he had written himself. He appeared in Kelebeğin Rüyası, İntikam, Ufak Tefek Cinayetler and Kefaret, and after playing Caesar in Oyun Atölyesi's staging of Antony and Cleopatra, he was named the year's most successful male actor at the 2018 Sadri Alışık awards. He helped found the Moda Sahnesi and DasDas stages in Istanbul, plus Sanat Mahal in Bursa, took on the role of UNDP Goodwill Ambassador, set up the İhtiyaç Haritası donation platform, and wed İdil Fırat that same year.