Rıza Akın

Rıza Akın — Biography

Rıza Akın spent much of his life in Adana's theatre and in journalism before returning to the screen in the mid-2000s, and became known as a late-discovered actor. Over a screen career of about fifteen years he appeared in around forty productions, among them Süt, Hükümet Kadın, Albüm and Kardeş Payı. When he died on 2 November 2022, the BBC remembered him as one of the special actors that Turkish cinema had discovered a little late.

He grew up in Adana in a family originally from Erzincan; he met theatre at the Adana Halkevi in his middle-school years, then moved to Ankara and became a professional at the Ankara Birlik Theatre. He later stepped away from the stage to study communication and work as a journalist, keeping theatre alive in Adana through work other than acting. In 1997 he founded the Seyhan Municipality Theatre Company and served as its artistic adviser for five years. In 2005 he returned to acting with Tayfun Pirselimoğlu's unfinished film Kuartet; at that time he was doing both news and acting work on a national channel.

The film line that began with Rıza (2007), Tatil Kitabı (2008), Karanlıktakiler (2009) and Saç (2010) continued with Ali Hoca in Süt, Priest Hanna in Hükümet Kadın and Rifat in Albüm. On television he played Ethem Menderes in Ben Onu Çok Sevdim, Tahsin in Kardeş Payı and Hüseyin Varoğlu in Kalp Yarası, and he worked with Pirselimoğlu again on Kerr. He sat on the board of the Adana Theatre Association. His funeral ceremony was held at Atlas Sineması, and he was buried in Adana.