Müjdat Gezen

Müjdat Gezen — Biography

Born Halit Müjdat Gözen on 29 October 1943 in the Fatih district of Istanbul, Müjdat Gezen took to the stage for the first time in a primary-school play in 1953, the same year his poems first appeared in the children's magazine Doğan Kardeş. He trained at the Theatre Department of the Istanbul Municipality Conservatories and went on to build a multi-hyphenate career as an actor, writer, screenwriter, director and producer.

One of Turkish cinema's most prolific performers, with more than eighty film and television credits, Gezen appeared in popular 1970s productions such as Hababam Taburu, Kara Gözlüm, Mıstık, Uyanık Kardeşler, Adamını Bul and Aptal Şampiyon. He starred in Gırgıriyede Büyük Seçim in 1984 and both wrote and directed Homoti (1987), one of the key credits of his directing career. He returned to television in the series Cennet Mahallesi in 2004, and later appeared in Memlekette Demokrasi Var (2010) and in Diktatör Adolf Hitler'in Hayatının Esrarengiz Yönleri (2015), which he also wrote and directed. He founded the Müjdat Gezen Arts Centre that bears his name and has served as UNICEF Turkey's Goodwill Ambassador since November 2007.

Gezen remained active on stage and in the headlines in 2026: he was hospitalised in April after falling ill during a performance of the Gırgıriye Müzikali, and later that year the sale of the building housing his arts centre stirred public controversy over the fate of an Atatürk bust that had stood there. In June 2026 he was also sentenced to prison in a case centered on remarks deemed insulting to Muslims.