Erdal Beşikçioğlu

Erdal Beşikçioğlu — Biography

Erdal Beşikçioğlu was born on 5 January 1970 in Ankara to a father of Laz descent and a mother from an Albanian family that had migrated from Priştine; he is a nephew of former Gençlerbirliği chairman İlhan Cavcav. After secondary school in İzmir, he entered the Hacettepe University State Conservatory in 1989, graduated in 1993 and immediately joined the State Theatres, later serving as acting director of the Diyarbakır State Theatre in 1995-96 and retiring from the Ankara State Theatre in 2015.

He drew attention on screen as Governor Faruk Yazıcı in the series Köprü (2006-2008), and won wider fame with the title role in Behzat Ç.: Bir Ankara Polisiyesi, which began in 2010; he carried the character into the films Seni Kalbime Gömdüm (2011, for which he won the Golden Orange for Best Actor), Ankara Yanıyor (2013) and Çekiç ve Gül (2022). He appeared in the Golden Bear-winning film Bal (2010), in Barda and Hayat Var, and as Halis Serbest in Bergen (2022), as well as in the series 46 Yok Olan and Adı Efsane. In January 2024 he became the Republican People's Party candidate for mayor of Etimesgut and was elected; on 30 July 2026 he was detained and then arrested as part of a corruption investigation and was suspended from office by the Interior Ministry.