Suzan Kardeş

Suzan Kardeş — Biography

Suzan Kardeş was born on April 15, 1960, in Mitrovica, Kosovo, the fourth of five children in a Kosovo Turkish family; her family moved to Istanbul in 1968, and she began an apprenticeship at a beauty salon at thirteen. After gaining experience at the Şan Theatre in 1983, she worked as a makeup artist on Hürriyet newspaper's photo-novels, and after meeting Sezen Aksu on the set of the photo-novel "Çalıkuşu," she did all of Aksu's stage and shoot makeup from 1985 onward. Following an accident in 1992, she stepped away from makeup for fourteen years, turning her home in Arnavutköy into a tavern called Bekriya and opening a meatball shop in Beyoğlu; she returned to makeup work in 1995 at the Beşiktaş Cultural Centre and worked with names such as Yılmaz Erdoğan, Demet Akbağ and Cem Yılmaz.

She first appeared on screen as both makeup artist and cast member, playing Mevlüde in Bir Demet Tiyatro; she went on to play Mefrika Hanım in Organize İşler, Fato Ana in Seksenler across two separate stretches (2012-2017 and 2019-2021), and Kükrek Kadriye in Çocuklar Duymasın. Drawing on the Rumelian folk songs she used to sing at Bekriya, she released her first album, also called Bekriya, in 2007 with Sezen Aksu's backing, and followed it with several more; she also co-authored a cookbook with her sister and fellow makeup artist, Neriman Kardeş. In 2026 she received the Golden Orange Film Festival's Cinema Labor Award and continued performing in concerts the same year.