Mehmet Kurtuluş

Mehmet Kurtuluş — Biography

Mehmet Kurtuluş is a Turkish-German actor born on 27 April 1972 in Uşak, Turkey. He moved to Germany with his family as a teenager, settling in Salzgitter and growing up alongside his brother Tekin Kurtuluş, who also became an actor. After starting out in school theatre, he turned professional in 1993 at the Braunschweig State Theatre, then relocated to Hamburg in 1995, where he met director Fatih Akın. Akın cast him in the lead role of Short Sharp Shock, launching a long collaboration that continued with In July and the internationally acclaimed Head-On, which Kurtuluş also co-produced.

On German television he became widely known for playing detective Cenk Batu in the Hamburg edition of the crime series Tatort, appearing in several episodes between 2009 and 2012. In Turkey, he built a following through projects such as Pars: Kiraz Operasyonu, Vasha and Hakan: Muhafız — Netflix's first Turkish original series. He went on to appear in the series Mordach in 2023 and in Pelin Esmer's film O da Bir Şey mi in 2025.

He married the German actress Désirée Nosbusch in 2005; the marriage ended in 2013.