Gülşen Tuncer

Gülşen Tuncer — Biography

Gülşen Tuncer is a versatile theatre figure who, over a career of more than fifty years, has combined acting with stage direction, teaching and cultural organising. Television audiences know her best as Arsen Hanım in Aşk-ı Memnu; more recently she appeared as Semra Dağlı in the series Hakim.

She trained in the Theatre Department of the Istanbul Municipal Conservatory, where, as a student, she and friends including Ertuğ Koruyan, Deniz Türkali and Mustafa Alabora founded Grup 6 Tiyatrosu. She entered the professional stage in 1968 with Haldun Taner's classic Zilli Zarife at the Gülriz Sururi-Engin Cezzar Theatre, and in later years played at many venues, from the Kenter Theatre to Ali Poyrazoğlu's company. In cinema she worked as an assistant director and acted in films such as Berdel (as Hanife), A Ay (as Neyir) and Soğuktu ve Yağmur Çiseliyordu; on television she appeared in O Hayat Benim, Fazilet Hanım ve Kızları and Sol Yanım.

Beyond acting, since the 1970s she has been art director and presenter of more than three hundred mass-audience shows, and was among the first in Turkey to use slides and film in them. She managed the Tepebaşı stage and Ankara's Çağdaş Sahne, voiced poetry and radio plays for TRT, and gave one-woman reading performances abroad. She began teaching at the Istanbul Technical University Conservatory and continues at TÜRSAK and the Sadri Alışık Cultural Centre; she is also the one who gave the Altınoluk festival its name, "Yaşama Saygı".