Biyograficim
Zafer Ergin

Zafer Ergin

Actor · 84 years old

Rıza Baba in the series Arka Sokaklar

Profile

Age84
Birth dateAugust 30, 1942
BirthplaceIstanbul
ProfessionActor
Zodiac signVirgo
Eye colorBrown
EducationFaculty of Languages, History and Geography, Art History Department

Worked most often with

Filmography / Projects

Zafer Ergin — Biography

Zafer Ergin is an actor and dubbing artist whose face Turkish television audiences have known across two generations of viewers. His defining roles are Mehmet Karahanlı in Kurtlar Vadisi and, for two decades, police chief Rıza Soylu, known as Rıza Baba, in Arka Sokaklar. He is still identified with Rıza Baba; the series ran until 2026.

A graduate of the Art History Department of Ankara University's Faculty of Languages, History and Geography, Ergin began acting at the Ankara Deneme Sahnesi. In the 1970s and 1980s he was first of all a voice: thanks to his deep, clear voice he dubbed actors into Turkish in many foreign series and films shown on TRT, Cüneyt Arkın above all. He entered cinema with the 1971 film Katiller, while Bağdat Hatun, Çalıkuşu and Yaprak Dökümü were among his first notable television work. In the 1990s and early 2000s he appeared in Berlin in Berlin, Sır Dosyası, Deli Yürek and Zalim. His real breakthrough came with Kurtlar Vadisi in 2003-2005; in Arka Sokaklar, which began in 2006, he played a character who rose within the same series, from chief inspector to police superintendent and then police chief.

His other films include Gelibolu, Güneşi Gördüm, New York'ta Beş Minare, Sümela'nın Şifresi: Temel and Prestij Meselesi. In 2014 he hosted one episode of the quiz show Kim Milyoner Olmak İster? as a guest presenter when Kenan Işık was unwell.

Photos

Zafer Ergin Zafer Ergin Zafer Ergin Zafer Ergin

Reactions

You can pick up to 3 reactions.

Their work through different eyes

Series Binger A series devotee tracking character arcs, cast chemistry and season pacing.

In Arka Sokaklar, Rıza Soylu is the chief who guides the team's younger members with a fatherly manner, and Zafer Ergin carried a character who rose through the ranks across the series' long run. In the longest-running weekly police series, what works, in my view, is that Rıza Baba builds authority through a fatherly manner rather than severity. A character like this gives the show a point of balance next to its younger officers.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

A chief in Arka Sokaklar, a Colonel in Güneşi Gördüm, a Chairman in Döngel Karhanesi: put together, Zafer Ergin's roles add up to the authority figure who is the face of the state and its institutions. That may have made him familiar to television audiences, but in my view the repetition of the same mold makes it hard to see another social face of his in the films.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes on this person's screen work, written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader comments are below.

Comments