Haluk Levent

Haluk Levent — Biography

Born Haluk Acil on 26 November 1968 in the Yüreğir district of Adana, Haluk Levent moved to Istanbul in 1992. While working at bars in Ortaköy he met Yıldıray Gürgen, and collaborations with musicians such as Serdar Öztop and Akın Eldes helped make him one of the artists who revived the Anatolian rock genre in the 1990s.

He released his debut album, Yollarda, in 1993, and his 1995 follow-up Bir Gece Vakti sold close to a million dollars' worth of copies. After completing military service he released Kral Çıplak (2001), Bir Erkeğin Günlüğü (2002), Aç Pencereni (2004) and Annemin Türküleri (2005).

Through the disaster-relief foundation Ahbap, which he founded, Levent has organized aid efforts in affected regions, and he was voted Turkey's most trusted celebrity for seven consecutive years between 2019 and 2025. In 2023 he was named to Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People list but skipped the accompanying gala because the profile written about him criticized the Turkish government. In 2026 he faced two separate legal matters: in June a court fined him and barred him from opening cheque accounts after cheques he had issued went unpaid, and in July he was taken into custody amid a criminal investigation into donations made to Ahbap, facing allegations of fraud and money laundering that he denied, saying he expected to be cleared.