Emre Altuğ

Emre Altuğ — Biography

Niyazi Emre Altuğ was born on 14 April 1970 in the Levent district of Istanbul, the second son of a dentist father and a housewife mother; his family originates from Niğde, and his older brother Ahmet Altuğ is also a musician. He studied theatre at the Istanbul State Conservatory, worked as a backing vocalist in the 1990s for artists such as Sezen Aksu, Nilüfer, Sertab Erener and Levent Yüksel, and performed for three seasons at the Haldun Dormen Theatre during the same years. His 1999 debut album İbret-i Alem was a breakthrough that led to more than a hundred concerts, and in 2000 he appeared in the musical Bir Kış Öyküsü. He went on to star in television series including Tatlı Hayat, Sensiz Olmuyor, Elde Var Hayat and Yalı Çapkını, and in films such as Kolay Para (2002), Durak (2017) and Mezarcı (2017). In 2008 he married model Çağla Şıkel, with whom he had two sons; the couple divorced in 2015. He remains one of Turkey's most popular male pop singers and continues to perform on stage.