Sinan Akkuş

Sinan Akkuş — Biography

Based in Germany, Turkish-born director and screenwriter Sinan Akkuş is best known for comedies about marriage and cultural clashes within Germany's Turkish community. As an actor he is also remembered as Sinan Turçulu in the series Stromberg and its feature film. Today he works mainly directing films and series episodes for German television, and he teaches at an acting school.

He moved to Germany with his family as a child and finished school in Kassel. After studying philosophy and German literature he switched to visual communication and film, spent a term as an exchange student at an international film school in Cuba, and graduated from the Kunsthochschule Kassel in 2000. The short films of his early years collected prizes: Sevda heißt Liebe won the Murnau award and Lassie won audience awards.

His first feature, Evet, ich will! (2008), treated Turkish weddings in Germany as comedy, won an audience award and was nominated for the German film critics' award for best debut. It was followed by 3 Türken und ein Baby (2015), which he also wrote and which was nominated for the Civis Media Prize. In later years he turned to television work such as Fischer sucht Frau, Fast perfekt verliebt, Ihr letzter Wille kann mich mal! and episodes of Wendehammer. As an actor he also appeared in Dear Courtney (2013).