Ezel Akay

Ezel Akay — Biography

Ezel Akay was born on 20 January 1961 in the İnegöl district of Bursa; his brother Ender Akay is a musician. After graduating from the Engineering Faculty of Boğaziçi University, he studied theatre at Villanova University in the United States. Before moving into film, he worked as an advertising copywriter, theatre director and actor, and production assistant, and later co-founded the production house İFR, through which he directed more than 500 commercials.

In 1996 he produced Derviş Zaim's Tabutta Rövaşata, and in the following years established himself as one of Turkish cinema's recognisable director-actors with films he directed himself, including Filler ve Çimen (2000), Şellale (2001), Neredesin Firuze (2004) and Hırsız Var! (2005). He later appeared as an actor in Beginner (2017) and both directed and acted in the television series Yarım Kalan Aşklar (2020).

In July 2026, Akay was briefly detained along with his brother during a narcotics investigation in Bursa; he was released under judicial supervision while his brother was formally arrested.