Nihat İleri

Nihat İleri — Biography

Nihat İleri, whose family comes from the Hemşin district of Rize, joined the state theatre in Ankara immediately after completing his training at the Ankara State Conservatory's theatre department in 1977; one classmate from that period was Mehmet Ali Erbil, later a well-known television host. Within two years he was among the first company members of the newly opened Istanbul branch, a post he has held ever since, and in the mid-1990s he moved his stage work to Germany for close to five years at Theater an der Ruhr. In the 2006-2007 season he co-founded Bi Tiyatro with Laçin Ceylan, staging an adaptation of The Little Prince there.

Active in film, television and voice work since 1987, İleri made his screen debut with Fahriye Abla (1984) and went on to appear in films including Maruf (2001), Büyü (2004), Cenneti Beklerken (2006), Yüreğine Sor (2010), Behzat Ç. Seni Kalbime Gömdüm (2011) and Rüzgarın Hatıraları (2015). On television he appeared in a number of series, most notably Binbir Gece.