Ali Barışık

Ali Barışık — Biography

Ali Barışık is a Turkish actor and stage director, born on 22 August 1980 in Istanbul. He graduated in 2002 from Dokuz Eylül University's business administration department but decided against a business career and instead sat conservatory entrance exams, spending two years at Bilkent University's theatre department before transferring to Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University's State Conservatory, from which he graduated in 2007.

In 2006 he was accepted as an observer with the Royal Shakespeare Company and appeared alongside Henry Goodman in Regime Change, a joint production between the company and BBC Radio Drama. He also spent time as theatre coordinator at the Beşiktaş Municipality Culture and Art Platform, led artistically by Zeliha Berksoy. On screen he is best known for Cingöz Recai (2017), Kara Ekmek (2015) and, as Fiko, Wings of the Night (2009), and he played Basri in the 2010 film Gecekondu.

His work has shifted increasingly toward directing in recent years, staging productions of Hamlet, Richard III, The Seagull and Woyzeck; he trained further in acting in London and in the Meisner technique in Berlin, later leading workshops on both subjects at several universities. He now teaches as a faculty member at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University's Istanbul State Conservatory, and in summer 2026 his production of Salome was staged at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.