Barış Çakmak

Barış Çakmak — Biography

Barış Çakmak is a Turkish actor, director and voice-over artist born on 5 July 1979 on the Gallipoli peninsula. After completing his early schooling in several cities, he studied Ancient Greek and Latin at Istanbul University's Faculty of Letters before graduating from the Theatre Department of Istanbul University State Conservatory in 2004. He began acting professionally around 2000 and made his film debut in Gönderilmemiş Mektuplar, a Yusuf Kurçenli picture notable as the last film to reunite Türkan Şoray and Kadir İnanır. He went on to appear in İncir Çekirdeği, about women's suicides in eastern Turkey; in Çanakkale 1915, playing a regiment commander in Turgut Özakman's script; in Yılmaz Erdoğan's Kelebeğin Rüyası as the poet Oktay Rıfat; and in Aşk-ı Suzan as a resident of a Mevlevi dervish lodge. On television he appeared in series including Zerda, Hanımın Çiftliği, Mavi Kelebekler and Masumlar Apartmanı, and presented a 39-part history documentary series, Seyahatname, for state broadcaster TRT. His international work includes the BBC Four adaptation of Orhan Pamuk's My Name Is Red and the German ARD production Mordkommission Istanbul. On stage he has performed with Tiyatro Fora, BKM, Kumbaracı50 and Tiyatro Pera, and won a best supporting actor award at the Ekin Yazın Dostları Theatre Awards for playing Pavel in a staging of Turgenev's Fathers and Sons. He has also done voice-over work for Eczacıbaşı and Greenpeace.