Turgay Tanülkü

Turgay Tanülkü — Biography

Turgay Tanülkü (born 18 July 1953 in Uşak) is a Turkish actor of stage, film and television.

After graduating from the theatre department of the Ankara State Conservatory in 1976, he joined the Ankara State Theatre the same year. He took drama courses in Leningrad in the early 1970s and taught acting at Dokuz Eylül University in the late 1980s. He also founded theatre groups in prisons, juvenile institutions and schools for the blind, and productions staged with inmates brought him a peace prize from abroad.

His screen career began in 1991 with Kıssadan Hisseler, and series such as Kurtlar Vadisi, Arka Sokaklar, Cennet Mahallesi and Yalan Dünya made him widely known. He played Cem in Fatih Akın's The Edge of Heaven (Yaşamın Kıyısında). From 2015 he became especially identified with the role of Şahin Ağa in Eşkıya Dünyaya Hükümdar Olmaz, and later appeared in films including Çakal and Paper Lives as well as the historical series Mehmed. Turkish media often note that he raised many foster children despite having no biological child of his own.