Tolgahan Sayışman

Tolgahan Sayışman — Biography

Tolgahan Sayışman (full name Turgut Tolgahan Sayışman) was born on December 17, 1981, in Istanbul, to a father whose family were muhacir from Thessaloniki with Albanian roots and a mother from Trabzon. After graduating from Kadıköy İntaş High School and Doğuş University's Faculty of Business Administration, he worked as a model, being named Best Model of Turkey in 2002 and Manhunt of Turkey in 2004 before winning the 2005 Manhunt International title in South Korea among 75 countries. Following acting training at Ekoldrama and under Ayla Algan, he made his screen debut in 2006 with the series Esir Kalpler.

He won acclaim playing Mustafa in Elveda Rumeli and took leading roles in the films Aşk Tutulması and Aşk Geliyorum Demez, then found wide popularity as Çınar Ilgaz in the series Lale Devri, which began in 2010. He went on to play Yiğit Kozan in Asla Vazgeçmem, Kenan in Siyah İnci, Yılmaz Karabey in Bir Umut Yeter, Fırat Bölükbaşı, nicknamed Kafkas, in Şampiyon, and Cihan Adabeyli in Şeref Sözü, before taking the lead in Barbaros Hayreddin: Sultanın Fermanı in 2022. He has since turned to producing, notably the series Kurtuluş Lisesi, and is married to model Almeda Abazi, with whom he has a son, Efehan.