Tamer Levent

Tamer Levent — Biography

Tamer Levent is a figure of Turkish theatre both on stage and in its institutions: actor, director, writer and former general director of the State Theatres. Television audiences know him from recent series such as İstanbullu Gelin, Camdaki Kız, Sakla Beni and Sahtekarlar, and film audiences from Emin Alper's Tepenin Ardı and Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Kış Uykusu.

Born in Karşıyaka, İzmir, he attended İzmir Turkish College for high school and entered the Theatre Department of the Ankara State Conservatory in 1971, graduating in 1977. At the State Theatres he worked first as an actor and then as a director. On 25 March 1994 he became general director in an election held at the institution only that once, and until 10 August 1994 he ran the Sanata Evet project. In 1984 he founded the Sanat Kurumu Deneme Sahnesi, and he is the founder and first president of TOMEB and has led the TOBAV foundation. He taught creative acting at universities in New York, Berlin and Warwick, and plays he directed were invited to festivals in Russia, Canada, South Korea, Iran and Northern Cyprus.

Tepenin Ardı (2012) brought him best-actor awards at the Ankara and Malatya film festivals, and Kış Uykusu (2014) won the Palme d'Or. A stage performance had earned him a best-actor award in 2009. On television he played Garip in İstanbullu Gelin and historical figures in Diriliş Ertuğrul and Fatih. He married producer Seynan Levent in 1982; they have two children.