Nurettin Sönmez

Nurettin Sönmez — Biography

Historical television drama runs through the career of Nurettin Sönmez, a Turkish actor closely tied to the genre. The role that brought him a wide audience was Bamsı Beyrek in Diriliş Ertuğrul and its sequel Kuruluş Osman. Alongside acting he works as an instructor in Far Eastern martial arts, giving training and seminars in Turkey and abroad. That background, together with his skill at horseback riding and swordsmanship, made period roles easier for him. More recently he played Kemal Yörükoğlu in the series Sipahi (2022).

He came to acting by a winding educational route: he studied mining engineering at Istanbul University, then attended the Dialog Communication acting school run by Can and Arsen Gürzap, and went on to theater studies at Yeditepe University. In his early screen years he appeared in productions such as Akşam Güneşi (1999) and Mavi Kelebekler (2011). In 2013 he began appearing in Ottoman-era productions with Bir Zamanlar Osmanlı Kıyam.

The real turning point was Diriliş Ertuğrul, which began in 2014; from then on Bamsı Beyrek became inseparable from his name. He played this character, adapted from a figure who also appears in history, across two separate series for roughly seven years. He carried the same character into the Kuruluş Osman cast in 2019 and left that series in 2021, four episodes before the season finale.