Pelin Batu

Pelin Batu — Biography

Born 27 December 1978 in Ankara, Pelin Batu comes from a family split between two heritages: her father, career diplomat and former parliament member İnal Batu, is of Pomak background, while her mother, Nevra, and paternal grandfather, poet Selahattin Batu, trace to Albanian and Balkan roots. Embassy postings carried the family through Pakistan, Northern Cyprus, Czechia, France and the United States during her school years. She trained in music and drama at Mannes College after New York's Marymount School, then drifted from literature and philosophy at NYU into a history degree she finished at Boğaziçi University, adding a master's and doctorate there afterward.

Cast as the concubine Nevres in 1999's Harem Suare, she built a screen career across Komser Şekspir, O Şimdi Asker, Pars: Kiraz Operasyonu, Hicran Sokağı and Grev, while building a parallel career in broadcasting: co-hosting the history show Tarihin Arka Odası with Murat Bardakçı and Erhan Afyoncu and later producing short science and history videos online. Publishing poetry since childhood, she put out the collection Cam in 2003 and, with Ahmet Almaz, a history of Judaism in 2007, adding further titles in the years after; she has called herself an atheist.

Alongside a 2013-2014 opinion column at Milliyet, her marriage to physician Macit Bitargil ended in divorce in 2022, a split during which she went on record rejecting claims of violence.