Hakan Karahan

Hakan Karahan — Biography

Hakan Karahan is a many-sided figure who moved from business to writing and then to acting: poet, novelist, screenwriter, lyricist, film producer and actor. A wide audience knows him as Lakmu in both seasons of Şahmaran; he is also long known as the partner of singer Candan Erçetin.

Born in Istanbul, Karahan went from Robert College to the University of Miami, where he studied business and graduated in 1983. He started at Du Pont de Nemours in Geneva, then returned to Turkey and held management posts at Sabancı Holding companies until 2003. In those years he wrote close to seventy articles and played volleyball for a long time; he has held a third-dan black belt in aikido since 1990. His writing took shape in the same period: an aikido guide, the poetry collections Kafamdaki Ses and İntizar, and novels beginning with Sürüden Ayrı. He sometimes writes lyrics under the name Sinan and wrote many songs for Candan Erçetin.

His screen career began in 2006 with Sağır Oda, for which he wrote the scripts and played Oğuz Bey. In 2007 he founded Narsist Film to adapt literary works and bought the film rights to five works, including Hasan Ali Toptaş's Gölgesizler. Ateşin Düştüğü Yer, Takip: İstanbul, Kaçak, Zeytin Tepesi (Ragıp Tolunay) and Eşkıya Dünyaya Hükümdar Olmaz (Özer, left the series in 2016) followed.