Sermiyan Midyat

Sermiyan Midyat — Biography

The theatre stage, comedy films and stand-up mark the path of Turkish actor, director and screenwriter Sermiyan Midyat. With Ay Lav Yu, which he wrote and directed, he won both best actor and best director at the Boston International Film Festival. He is now performing his stand-up show "Sermiyan Midnight" in various cities.

Born in Ankara to a family from Mardin, he moved to Istanbul with them at the age of seven. He began in theatre at the Kadıköy public education centre and in 1998 entered Nöbetçi Tiyatro by exam, studying under Ferhan Şensoy, Derya Baykal, Rasim Öztekin and Tuncel Kurtiz. At Istanbul University he began in chemistry before switching to business. In 2007 he founded the Oyunbozan theatre, where he wrote and directed 9 Ay Son Gün. On screen he first stood out as Arıza Hamza in Emret Komutanım and as the brother-in-law in Pardon. He then reached a wide audience with comedies he wrote and directed: Ay Lav Yu (2010), Hükümet Kadın and its sequel (2013) and Bir Baba Hindu (2016). In Tut Yüreğimden Anne (2018) he played Okan.

Ay Lav Yu also earned best comedy at the Houston Independent Film Festival and the best comedy actor prize at the Sadri Alışık Awards. He has written lyrics for songs sung by Mustafa Ceceli and Özcan Deniz. In October 2025 he won a compensation suit against a production company over the film Cellabi, which was never made, and the Damat Mektebi production went to Diyarbakır for filming.