Nadir Sarıbacak

Nadir Sarıbacak — Biography

Nadir Sarıbacak graduated in Turkish Language Teaching from Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University in 2000 and acted at the Avcılar Municipal Theatre from 2000 to 2002; he worked briefly as a teacher to satisfy family expectations before resigning to study acting at Akademi İstanbul. He joined the Semaver Kumpanya theatre company in 2004 and completed an advanced acting master's program at Bahçeşehir University in 2006.

He drew national attention in 2009 with the lead role of Musa in Wrong Rosary (Uzak İhtimal), which won the Tiger Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. He played the teacher Levent in Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Winter Sleep (2014) and Kamil in Yozgat Blues (2013), and in 2015 won Best Actor at the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival for Ivy (Sarmaşık); his acceptance speech, expressing solidarity regardless of nationality, was censored by the broadcaster and drew international coverage, including from Time. His television work includes Gönülçelen, Beş Kardeş and Muhteşem Yüzyıl: Kösem, and now based in the United States, he made his directing debut in 2025 with Gazelle.