Çelik Bilge

Çelik Bilge — Biography

Çelik Bilge was born on 31 January 1949 in Istanbul. He graduated from Galatasaray High School in 1967 and went on to study at the Theatre Department of Tel Aviv University (1968-1971). Early in his career he trained at Giorgio Strehler's Piccolo Teatro in Milan, at Peter Brook's and Ariane Mnouchkine's theatres in Paris, at the Bread and Puppet Theatre in Nantes, and at the Berliner Ensemble in Berlin.

He first performed with the Mete Alpman Pantomime Group in 1965 and appeared in Aziz Nesin's play "Sen Gara Değilsin" in 1966-67. Between 1972 and 1976 he co-founded the Théâtre de Liberté in Paris with Mehmet Ulusoy, and between 1976 and 1989 the İşçinin Tiyatrosu (Workers' Theatre) in Amsterdam with Vasıf Öngören and Meral Taygun; in 1988 he taught at the Amsterdam Theatre School. From 2002 to 2008 he ran the Semaver Kumpanya company in Istanbul. His film work includes Sahte Cennete Veda, Tramvay, Şaşkın, Umut Adası, Bukalemun and Uçan Melekler, and on television he appeared in Reyting Hamdi, Kurtlar Vadisi, Sırça Köşk, Oğlum İçin and Son Bahar. He has also performed French chanson shows and, since 1978, worked as a voice actor in French, English, Dutch and Turkish alongside commercial film work.