Cansel Elçin

Cansel Elçin — Biography

Cansel Elçin was born on 20 September 1973 in the Tire district of İzmir. He moved to France with his family at the age of nine and attended the Lycée Racine in Paris. At his family's urging he studied economics and social sciences and briefly worked in trade, but his real interest lay in theatre: after evening classes he enrolled at the Ecole Florent, where he studied alongside Audrey Tautou. He also took film and theatre lessons from John Strasberg and Jack Garfein.

After graduating he performed in numerous stage productions across France, appeared in commercials and films, and wrote and directed the short film Kelebek (Papillon). Meeting director Ferzan Özpetek, who had watched one of his performances, led to work on Harem Suare, and an invitation from Tomris Giritlioğlu brought him to Turkey, where his first project was the series Kırık Kanatlar. His lead role in Hatırla Sevgili made him widely known and earned him a best male television actor award at the Beykent University Communication Awards, chosen by student votes. He appeared in films such as Küçük Kıyamet and 120 and in series including Gönülçelen, Kötü Yol and Dayan Yüreğim. In 2009 he made his feature directing debut with Kampüste Çıplak Ayaklar. After a marriage to Pınar Apaydın ended in divorce, he married fellow actress Zeynep Tuğçe Bayat in 2020, and they have a son named Atlas.