Onur Tükel

Onur Tükel — Biography

Turkish-American Onur Tukel makes films, writes screenplays, acts and paints, and has become a familiar name in New York's independent film scene. Gender and the workings of relationships are recurring subjects in his films. He works both behind and in front of the camera, and has often been writer, director and lead actor on his own films.

He wrote and directed his first feature, House of Pancakes, in 1997. The vampire drama Drawing Blood was completed in 1999 and the comedy drama Ding-a-ling-Less in 2001; in 2005, credited as Sergio Lapel, he made The Pigs, about middle-aged men who arrange to have their wives murdered. He drew real attention with Richard's Wedding (2012), which he wrote, produced, directed and starred in. Critics were mixed, though David DeWitt of The New York Times placed it in the line of Cassavetes, Sayles and Linklater.

The vampire horror comedy Summer of Blood (2014) got a warmer reception; Eric Kohn of Indiewire likened Tukel to the broke, post-9/11 version of an early Woody Allen character. He then wrote, directed and starred in the comedy horror Applesauce, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2015. He worked with Dylan Baker and Ivana Miličević on The Misogynists and Catfight. As an actor he also appeared in Septien (2011), Red Flag (2012) and Ping Pong Summer (2014).