Umut Karadağ

Umut Karadağ — Biography

Umut Karadağ's long career as a Turkish actor runs from the Ankara State Theatre stage to television and film. Wide audiences know him above all from historical series: Yavlak Arslan in Kuruluş Osman and Arslan Yusuf in Alparslan: Büyük Selçuklu. He shared the lead in Semih Kaplanoğlu's Bağlılık Hasan, submitted as Turkey's Oscar entry, and in 2025 played Serdar in the series Eşref Rüya.

Raised in a theatre family, Karadağ decided on acting in primary school and graduated from the Theatre Department of Ankara University's Faculty of Language, History and Geography. In the second half of the 1990s he appeared at the Diyarbakır State Theatre in plays such as Kısasa Kısas, Kanlı Düğün and Yolcu, and in 1999 he directed Yedi Köyün Yargıcı. From 2000 he worked at the Ankara State Theatre in productions including Hamlet, Kerbela, IV. Murat and Reis Bey, and he also worked with the amateur troupe Ankara Deneme Sahnesi.

His screen experience goes back to 1993. He played Yakup in Asmalı Konak, Major Gaspar in Karayılan, Abdurrahman Çavuş in Tatar Ramazan and İskender Akay in Halka, and appeared in the films Gölgesizler and Valley of the Wolves: Palestine. He is also among the managers of the production company Ray Yapım and has directed many music videos.