Engin Akyürek

Engin Akyürek (born 12 October 1981) is a Turkish actor best known for his roles as Mustafa Bulut in Turkish series Bir Bulut Olsam, Kerim Ilgaz in Turkish series Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne? and Omer Demir in Kara Para Ask .

Engin Akyürek
Born (1981-10-12) 12 October 1981
Ankara, Turkey
OccupationActor
Years active2004–present

Early life and education

Engin Akyürek was born on 12 October 1981 in Ankara, Turkey. His father is a retired government official and his mother is a homemaker. He has a younger brother Erin.[1] He graduated from Ankara University's Department of History. His parents still reside in Ankara, while he and his brother live in Istanbul.

Career
"Acting is not just putting on a costume and saying your lines" [2]

Engin Akyürek

"I don't believe in luck, or chance. It is important to have talent and substance. Actually, luck, talent, and doing the right thing at the right time is what makes us. But, the most important, distinguishing factor is talent." [3]

Engin Akyürek

In 2004, two years after graduating from university, Engin Akyürek took part in the Turkiye’nin Yildizlari (Turkey's Star) TV competition.[1] His first place win in this competition landed him a supporting role in the TV series, Yabanci Damat (Foreign Groom) (2004–2007), produced by Yagmur Taylan and Durul Taylan.[4]It was the first Turkish series exported to Greece and Europe and the first important success for Turkish series' export. It's about the love of a Greek man and a Turkish woman.

Akyürek did his first movie Zeki Demirkubuz's Kader in 2006. For the role of "Cevat" in this movie, he won the Modern Cinema Actors & Actresses Association (Casod) award for the "Most Promising Actor", and Cinema Writers Association (Siyad) award also for the "Most Promising Actor", in 2006. [5][6]

His next project was TV Series "Karayilan" (2007-08) which was directed by Cem Akyoldas. This series was about the French occupation of Gaziantep and it had the second highest budget for TV Series in Turkey. Akyürek starred as Nizipli/Halim.

In 2009, Akyürek got his first leading role when he played the male psychotic lover, Mustafa Bulut, in the TV series Bir Bulut Olsam (Above the Clouds), written by Meral Okay and directed by Ulas Inanc. Akyürek considers his character Mustafa Bulut as his best role so far and the one closest to his heart.

Though, Akyürek portrayed an anti-hero early in his career, yet his very next character as a lead got deeply embedded in every viewer's mind. He portrayed the male romantic lead, Kerim Ilgaz, in Fatmagul'ün Suçu Ne? (What's the Fault of Fatmagul) (2010–2012), a TV series about societal issues surrounding a rape victim. The original scenario of Fatmagul'ün Suçu Ne? by Vedat Turkali, is written by Ece Yorenc and Melek Gencoglu for TV Drama and directed by Hilal Saral and produced by Kerem Catay. His performance in this series brought him many awards and he became one of the most popular actors in Turkey. This role also made him one of the most recognized and loved Turkish actors in the Middle East and Latin America.

He has starred as Tekin in a movie called Bi Küçük Eylül Meselesi (A Small September Affair) written and directed by Kerem Deren. The movie takes place in Bozcada (2014).[7]

He came back to the TV screens in 2014 with the his character of police officer Ömer Demir in Kara Para Aşk (Black Money Love) (2014-15), written by Eylem Canbolat and Sema Ergenekon and directed by Ahmet Katiksiz for, for which he won the 'Best Actor' in Seoul International Drama Awards (2015) and was nominated in the same category at the International Emmy Awards (2015).[8]

After Kara Para Aşk, Akyürek took a break from acting for some time and returned to small screen with his next series Ölene Kadar (Until Death) in January 2017. It was produced by TIMS and written by Elif Usman anf Sevgi Yilmaz. The first four episodes were directed by Umur Turagay and the rest by Feride Kaytan. In Ölene Kadar, Akyürek played the role of Dr. Dağhan Soysür who was convicted for murdering a business tycoon Sezai Karali when he was a 24-year old medical-grad pursuing his specialization. Due to this false accusation, Dağhan lost his youth, his career, the woman he loved and his unborn child. 11 years later, Dağhan is called upon by a young lawyer Selvi Nardan (Fahriye Evcen Özçivit), who claims that she knows he is innocent and can prove in court that Dağhan never committed the murder for which he has served more than a decade in confinement. Though the series had a strong theme and direction, and Akyürek's romantic pair with Fahriye was making waves internationally, Ölene Kadar failed to impress the local Turkish audience, and due to low ratings, the series had its finale at its 13th episode.

Akyürek's next projects were movies, first one being Çocuklar Sana Emanet (Children Entrusted to You) released on March 23, 2018. It was written and directed by Çagan Irmak and produced by Avsar. Apart from Akyürek, the cast includes veteran actress Serif Sezer, Hilal Altinbilek, Osman Alkas and child star Erin Devrim.

The movie starts with a young man Kerem, who is the son of an elite Istanbul family and an architect in high demand. He has everything and a beautiful wife Yeşim (Hilal Altinbilek), money, career and status. He lives in a luxurious block of flats with a view to a scenic landscape. He is a winner of this life and a lucky man. But not everything is as perfect as it is seen. The young couple has problems with childlessness and this fact, from time to time, tests their relationship’s solidity. They try several methods of fertilization to increase the chances and make Yesim more likely to conceive a child with no success.

Kerem realizes Yesim’s hopes are shattered and that she needs moral support. He offers to go to their summer house to take the edge off. They hit the road with Kerem driving. All of a sudden, a child jumps in front of the speeding car which causes Kerem to lose control of the vehicle and it tumbles downhill. Kerem gets heavily injured but survives, but he loses his beautiful wife. The child also dies at the scene of the accident. Kerem holds himself responsible for their deaths and cannot overcome his feelings of pain and guilt. This scene, actually, is the first notorious accent of the film, after which, the hero crosses over a new stage of his life, cardinally differing from the previous ones.

Kerim survives after the catastrophe, but is pressed by a mass of emotional sufferings and shocks; firstly, the loss of his beloved and secondly the responsibility for the child’s death. Life stopped shining in its bright colors for Kerem, instead of feeling a joy of being; his soul is eroded by sense of guilt. Feeling guilty about the tragedy is what becomes Kerem’s internal burden, his fatality and punishment. It can be said that he voluntarily chose the fate, thinking, it was a punishment for the people`s death, surrendering himself to a whore of sufferings and compunction, which eats him from inside. Bringing himself to the edge of emotional meltdown, losing connection with reality, Kerem sinks into abyss of his misery and allows his inner fears and demons of his sick soul, to revive and to influence on his life. So, in this moment, mystics, gloom and unreality come in his life. A monster from the other world starts chasing him, whom the hero released refusing bright sides of his own soul. Kerem tries to get better, but it does not work and he decides to isolate himself from his work, family, friends, basically from everyone and everything around him and travels to a small town named Assos. In a remote village, he meets a blind woman (Serif Sezer), the local shaman and healer, who wants to help him to overcome his pain. Connected with the parallel worlds, she opens Kerem's eyes on many details of his life coming from his childhood. Kerem recollects a devilish villain, who was living behind and was hunting little children. He recollects vague pictures of his childhood, he cannot remember precise the bloody events taking place in that time, but he just found out that there was a fatal link between him and the villain. The dead child, who is an accidental victim of Kerem, missing the world of the alive, has opened “a portal of Limb”, setting free the villain-demon, who claims revenge from Kerem.

At this point of the story, the genre transforms from psychological drama with elements of thriller to a classical horror. Actually, the line in between of them is thin, but it exists.

The monster, fostered in the depths of Kerem`s soul, becomes out of control. The more the fears and sufferings of Kerem increase, the more the power of the monster straightens. The only way for him is to win his both inner and outer demons. The second aspect of the film is this struggle of Kerem with the monster, or more correctly, Kerem’s struggle with himself.

A certain symbolism is seen in the fight, which is peculiar to the film in whole. Finding strengths, Kerem wins. But the blind woman, who represents good, gives her life in the name of destroying evil. Indeed, the victory over the monster means not only freedom of Kerem, but also releasing of souls of innocent children, who became victims of the hellish creature, living at one time in the musk of a human being. After getting rid of his monsters, inhabited in his soul and reality, Kerem starts seeing the beauty of life again.

The finale of the story is quite clear and optimistic. Having won his inner demons, Kerem refuses the dark side of his soul. That means, he forms the better reality. He forgives himself, kills the monster in himself; he kills an evil outside, because everything is interconnected. “Life is everywhere!” – as if summing up the story by Kerem`s wife Yeşim , who is looking at him from the other but better world. She hints that Life is not restricted by the frames of earthy existing.

Akyürek's next venture on the silver screen was the movie Bir Aşk Iki Hayat (One Love Two Lives) in 2019. It was produced by Ay yapim and written by Burcu Gorgun Toptas and Ozlem Yilmaz, whereas Ali Bilgin did the direction. The movie was an adaptation of a Greek movie and got released on February 13, 2019. In this movie Engin Akyürek is in the role of an advertising director Umut, Bergüzar Korel in the role of an architect Deniz. The movie tells how the choice of one of the two possibilities-to go out for a walk with the dog or stay home, change the life of Umut; how it affects his fate. Life provides thousands of possibilities. We never know what's best for us. When we take the first step, we don't assume that a good start can have a bad ending, and the bad start can lead to a happy end. The film affects another subject. It tells us, somewhere beyond there is another one of the possibility. The things we can't survive here, happen to us somewhere else. Umut sees life through the prism of the theory of parallel universes and tells the viewers: come see what version of your life you live in fact.

This film responded to "the question is not correct". The theme of parallel universes lately, is a favorite for the people who work in the genre of science fiction. This is where they are headed for it differently. They didn't pass the role of fate. That's the part of the movie that has huddled love. It tells us, whatever choices you make, whatever you pass, at the right time, in the right place, you will fall in love with the person you are destined for.

Akyürek has returned to the small screen with his series Sefirin Kizi (The Ambassador's Daughter) from December 16, 2019. The series is a joint production of O3 Medya and NGM and is aired on Star TV. It is written by Nehir Erdem and Ayse Ferda Eryilmaz and directed by Emre Kabakusak. Akyürek plays the role of Sancar, the son of a poor farmer, who is loved by Narê (Neslihan Atagül), the daughter of a Turkish ambassador who came to Bodrum when she was a child. These two are opposite to each other but fell madly in love and struggle for their love for years. Eventually, the girl decides to escape with the boy, but on the night they are to elope, Narê suddenly disappears. No one ever sees her again. Some say she fell into the sea and died. Others said that she escaped or fled to Europe. A folk singer, sings their story that the daughter of the ambassador flew away like a bird. Thus, the unhappy story of Sancar and Narê, becomes a legend. The series is currently on-air in Turkey to-date April 2020 but has been postponed after its 15th episode due to the lockdown across the world because of COVID-19. The series tops the ratings during its air time on Monday nights.

Filmography

Movies
Title Year Role Notes
Kader2006CevatTurkish Cinema Award (SIYAD) for “Most Promising Actor”

CASOD (Cagdas Sinema Oyuncuları Dernegi) Oyunculuk Award in 2006 for "Most Promising Actor"

A Small September Affair2014Tekin Bulut (Tek)It was released on February 14, 2014. He plays a critically acclaimed character of a naive, innocent man who is not gifted with physical beauty but instead a beautiful heart.
Çocuklar Sana Emanet2018KeremAn interior architect Kerem had a traumatic car accident and lost his wife in it, so he spent some time with a healer woman and people of a village to recover.
Bir Aşk İki Hayat2019Umut

Television
Title Year Role Notes
Yabancı Damat2004–2007Kadir SadıkogluHe plays a baker of a sweet shop engaged to Nazli, the daughter of the shop owner.
Karayilan2007–2008Nizipli HalimHe plays a pure, innocent, loyal, ignorant, but at the same time very funny and tough character fighting for the liberation of Gaziantep City from the occupying French forces during the Turkish Independence War.
Bir Bulut Olsam2008–2009Mustafa BulutHe plays an epileptic and obsessive lover, who forcefully marries his cousin, abuses and tortures her for not returning his love, although not evil at heart, his bursts of short temper and unrequited love for Narin makes him emotionally unstable and commit acts of violence that hurt him more than the ones he wants to hurt.
Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?2010–2012Kerim IlgazHe plays his most popular character to date of a man forced to marry the woman he is falsely accused of raping and eventually falls in love with her.
Kara Para Aşk2014–2015Ömer DemirHe plays the critically acclaimed International Emmy Award nominated character of a confident, handsome and chivalrous policeman.
Ölene Kadar2017Dağhan SoysürDağhan is a talented doctor who is studying to get his proficiency and soon to marry Beril, his pregnant girlfriend, even without her father's approval. However, on the day of his wedding he is narcotized and framed for the murder of his wealthy father-in-law.
Sefirin Kızı2019–Sancar EfeoğluSancar has always had a chip on his shoulder. Nare has always yearned for love. When they meet and fall in love as children, they know they are meant to be; they just have to wait to be old enough to marry. On the night of their wedding, a startling revelation by Nare forever changes their lives and puts their love on hold until the night of another wedding many years later.

Theatre
Title Year Role Notes
Romantika Muzikali2007Ceto[9]

Awards
Title Year Role Awards
Kader2006CevatTurkish Cinema Award (SIYAD) for “Most Promising Actor”[5][10]
CASOD (Cagdas Sinema Oyuncuları Dernegi) Oyunculuk Award in 2006 for “Most Promising Actor” [6]
Kara Para Aşk December 2014 Omer“ Best Actor of 2014 Drama Dalında En İyi Erkek Oyuncu RaniniTv'den 2014 Yılının En İyileri Listesi raninitv 25 Aralık 2014”
April 2015Stars of the Export in Electrical Electronics and Service Exporters Association Cultural Service Awards [11]
May 2015“Best Actor” of the Year category in " festival Marconi Odülleri ", organized by Bursa University " radio and television branch " in Turkey. The winners this year[12]
2015The Best Actor” Award based on the 2015 poll organized by www.televizyondizisi.com.awards[13]
Best actor Prize in Seoul International Drama Awards 2015[14]
Best Actor Nominee in Golden Butterfly Awards 2015 [15]
Best Actor Nominee in International Emmy Awards 2015 [16]
Best Actor in 4. Kristal Fare Ödülleri [17]
2016Best Actor in Altın Palamut Sinema Televizyon Ödülleri İçin [18]
Best Actor in Dijital Dünyanın En’leri Ödülleri 2016[19]
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References
  1. "ENGÝN AKYÜREK KÝMDÝR / 2 - Hürriyet". Kelebekgaleri.hurriyet.com.tr. Retrieved 2012-02-04.
  2. "ENGÝN AKYÜREK KÝMDÝR / 12 - Hürriyet". Kelebekgaleri.hurriyet.com.tr. Retrieved 2012-02-04.
  3. "ENGÝN AKYÜREK KÝMDÝR / 8 - Hürriyet". Kelebekgaleri.hurriyet.com.tr. Retrieved 2012-02-04.
  4. "Dizilerimiz". Erler Film. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2012-02-04.
  5. "SİYAD Ödülleri'ne Reha Erdem damgası". Kurumsalhaberler.com. Archived from the original on 2018-06-14. Retrieved 2012-02-04.
  6. "Milliyet İnternet haber, finans, spor, astroloji, sağlık, hava durumu, sinema, televizyon, video, tatil, galeri, emlak, araba, seri ilan, oyun sitesi". Sanat.milliyet.com.tr. Archived from the original on 2012-05-02. Retrieved 2012-02-04.
  7. "bi kucuk Eylul meselesi". Bikucukeylulmeselesi.com. Retrieved 2015-11-28.
  8. "Engin Akyürek and Tuba Büyüküstün's new tv series: Kara Para Aşk". 2014-03-23. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  9. "21:00 Romantika müzikali". Retrieved 3 May 2016.
  10. "Sinema Yazarları Derneği". SİYAD. Archived from the original on 2015-12-08. Retrieved 2015-11-28.
  11. ""İhracatın yıldızları ödüllendirildi" | Magazin Haberleri". Haberturk.com. Retrieved 2015-11-28.
  12. "Kara Para Aşk'a bir ödül daha - Haberler". Atv. Retrieved 2015-11-28.
  13. "TelevizyonDizisi.com 2015 En İyiler Anketi Sonuçlandı". Televizyon Dizisi. Archived from the original on 2015-11-20. Retrieved 2015-11-28.
  14. "Seoul International Drama Awards". Seouldrama.org. Retrieved 2015-11-28.
  15. https://web.archive.org/web/20150824233427/http://www.pantenealtinkelebekodulleri.com/JoinTheVoting.aspx. Archived from the original on August 24, 2015. Retrieved September 4, 2015. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  16. "'Black Mirror' Star Rafe Spall Among International Emmy Award Nominees". Variety. 2015-10-05. Retrieved 2015-11-28.
  17. "4. Kristal Fare Ödülleri Sahiplerini Buldu". Bugun.com.tr. 2015-11-16. Archived from the original on 2015-11-18. Retrieved 2015-11-28.
  18. http://iafl.meb.k12.tr/tema/icerikler/altin-palamut-sinema-televizyon-odulleri-icin-dev-anket_2562980.html. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  19. "Dijital Dünyanın Enleri – Türkiye'nin İnternet Dünyası Ödülleri!".
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