Yiğit Özşener

Yiğit Özşener — Biography

Yiğit Özşener was born on 6 April 1972 in İzmir's Karşıyaka district, into a family with immigrant roots on his father's side from Kavala and on his mother's from Skopje. He finished an electronics and communications engineering degree at Yıldız Technical University in 1996, took a business master's at Koç University from 1997 to 1999, and did his military service teaching English as a reserve officer at Kuleli Military High School. After joining Şahika Tekand's Studio Players in 1994, he made his professional stage debut the next year in her production of Gergedanlaşma, which toured to festivals in Bulgaria and Macedonia; he later performed in the Herakles trilogy directed by Theodoros Terzopoulos at Delphi's Ancient Drama Festival in 2000 and in the Greek-Turkish co-production Persians during the 2006 World Theatre Olympics. He became a familiar face through the Turkcell "Özgür Çocuk" ad campaign with singer Nil Karaibrahimgil, and voiced the character Olive in a 2008 BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Orhan Pamuk's My Name Is Red. On screen he played Cemil Paşazade in Dudaktan Kalbe, Cengiz Atay in Ezel, and Rüzgar in İntikam, portrayed Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in Zaferin Rengi, and starred as Mete in the Kaybedenler Kulübü film series, alongside roles in Ramo, Barbaroslar, Şahane Hayatım and Mira on HBO Max. He has also staged his own award-winning play, Aşınma, in London.