Barış Atay

Barış Atay — Biography

Barış Atay Mengüllüoğlu was born on 22 September 1981 in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, to an Arab Alevi family that soon settled in Antakya. He left the biology program at Çukurova University in his final year, moved to Istanbul and graduated from the theatre department at Yeditepe University, later earning a master's in cinema and television at Kadir Has University. After roles in the series Şöhret and Hacı, he became known for playing "Saffet" in Arka Sıradakiler, and appeared in the films Kabuk, Zincirbozan, Güzel Günler Göreceğiz, Köpek, Eksik and Damat Koğuşu, also directing Eksik and Aden. His one-man play Only a Dictator, staged at Kadıköy's Emek Theatre, was banned by the government in its third season as objectionable. In 2018 he was elected an HDP member of parliament for Hatay, switched the same year to the Workers' Party of Turkey and served until 2023, resigning as the party's deputy chairman in 2024. In 2020, after criticizing Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu over a rape case, he said he was attacked by a group of five and blamed the minister for it; one defendant in the case was later convicted and another acquitted. He married director Beste Sultan Kasapoğulları in 2013, had a son, Asi Baran, in 2015, and the couple disclosed in 2026 that they had divorced in 2019.