Özgür Özata

Özgür Özata — Biography

Özgür Özata is a Turkish-German actor and journalist, born on 17 February 1977 in İskenderun and raised in Berlin, where his family settled in 1980. The son of a journalist mother and a father who worked as a German-Turkish-Russian translator, he began appearing in films at the age of 13 and drew wider attention for his role opposite Günter Pfitzmann in "Der Millionenerbe".

To sharpen his craft, he trained privately with Nina Gaidarova at The Actors Studio in New York in 2001, and through Germany's first Turkish-German talent agency — founded by actor Tayfun Bademsoy in 1990 — he built connections with German directors, appearing in more than thirty films by 2007. His screen credits include "Poppitz" (2002), "Counterparts" (2007), "Straight" (2007) and the television series "Marienhof" (1992); he is also a member of Germany's Federal Association of Film and Television Actors.

In later years Özata moved from acting into journalism: since July 2011 he has been part of the editorial leadership of the news portal berlinturk.de, and since February 2012 he has published the free monthly magazine Berlintürk.