Okday Korunan

Okday Korunan — Biography

Okday Korunan is a stage actor, director and playwright born in Istanbul on 5 January 1965. He discovered theatre in high school and graduated from the Mimar Sinan University State Conservatory in 1988. He then completed a master's degree on actor training at the same university in 1992, supervised by Müşfik Kenter, and a doctorate-level proficiency in art in film and television at Marmara University in 1996. He joined the State Theatres in Diyarbakır in 1988, later moved to the Istanbul State Theatre, and served several terms as its deputy director. He has also taught body language, diction and acting at various universities.

His stage work has earned numerous awards: İsmet Küntay prizes for Bir Şehnaz Oyun and Pir Sultan Abdal, and a Yeni Tiyatro magazine award for his Andrey in Üç Kızkardeş. His direction of Hiç Kimsenin Öyküsü and Kendi Gök Kubbemiz was honoured, and his own play İyi Şanslar won a playwriting award in 2020. In 2025 he founded Korunan Sahne, where he stages his own plays such as Nazım'ın Kedisi; his poems and newspaper columns have also been published.

On screen, his career began in 1987 with On Kadın and continued with Çökertme, Yağmur Zamanı, Kınalı Kuzular and Fatih Harbiye. He reached a wide audience as Salih in Cesur ve Güzel, followed by series such as Çocuk, Akif and Ateş Denizi.