Raci Şaşmaz

Raci Şaşmaz — Biography

Tayyar Raci Şaşmaz is known as the writer and producer of Kurtlar Vadisi (Valley of the Wolves), one of Turkish television's most-watched action series. He also wrote and produced the film spin-offs of the same universe, later moved into business, and returned to writing and producing in 2015 with Eşkıya Dünyaya Hükümdar Olmaz. He is the brother of actor Necati Şaşmaz and the elder brother of director Zübeyr Şaşmaz.

After studying film and television at Marmara University, Şaşmaz entered the industry as a screenwriter on Osman Sınav's Deli Yürek and in 2001 wrote his first cinema screenplay, for Deli Yürek: Bumerang Cehennemi. Avcı and Ekmek Teknesi (2002) carried his name in the same years. The turning point was Kurtlar Vadisi (2003); in 2004 he founded Pana Film and took on production of the series as well. The company went on to make the series' sequels Kurtlar Vadisi Terör and Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu, and the films from Kurtlar Vadisi Irak (2006) to Kurtlar Vadisi Filistin (2011).

At the end of 2013, while the eighth season of Pusu was airing, he left the company after a disagreement with his brother and gave up writing and producing the series. From 2010 he invested in construction, tourism and industry, and in 2015 he founded Pana Yapı. He had also played the character Ali Candan in Kurtlar Vadisi.