Yetkin Dikinciler

Yetkin Dikinciler — Biography

Yetkin Dikinciler was born in Istanbul on 15 August 1969, the only child of a retired army officer and a Red Crescent nurse; his father's postings took the family through Ağrı, Erzurum, Yozgat, Ankara, Pınarhisar and Trabzon before he reached school age, and he attended primary school in Trabzon and high school at Istanbul's Şehremini Lisesi. He began university in the Philosophy Department of Istanbul University's Faculty of Letters, then, after meeting Yıldız Kenter in a theatre course, transferred to the Theatre Department of Mimar Sinan University's State Conservatory, graduating in 1993. His stage career began at the Bakırköy Municipal Theatre and continued at the state theatres of Antalya and Diyarbakır before he joined the Istanbul State Theatre company in 1999, the same year he met Attis Theatre director Theodoros Terzopoulos and toured as a guest performer in Colombia, Spain and Germany. He made his film debut, also directing, in Leoparın Kuyruğu, then appeared in Gülizar, Üç Kişilik Aşk and Avrupa Yakası. He gained wide recognition for playing Salim in Çağan Irmak's Babam ve Oğlum and the poet Nâzım Hikmet in Buket İlhan's Mavi Gözlü Dev, the latter role earning him best actor honors at the Ankara Film Festival, the ÇASOD Awards and the Sadri Alışık Awards. He later appeared in the series Muhteşem Yüzyıl and Bahtiyar Ölmez, and won an award at the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival in 2025 for Parçalı Yıllar. He married Esra Akkaya in 1999 and divorced a year later; he married Aslı Orcan in 2014, and the couple have a daughter, Lal.