Okan Bayülgen

Biography

Bayülgen was born on March 23, 1964 in Istanbul, Turkey, the son of a lawyer father and a painter mother.

He spent six years in Galatasaray High School which he says emotionally harsh years, then he passed to Bodrum High School, eventually he graduated from Şişli High School in 1984. He attended Tours University Faculty of Law and transferred to Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Economics. After a year of studying economics, Bayülgen returned to Turkey and attended Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts State Conservatory,a Turkish state university dedicated to the higher education of fine arts. He graduated in 1989 with a master's degree.

Bayülgen started his career as the youngest director of the State Theaters in 1989. He also worked as an actor there. In 1991, he began his broadcasting career by hosting his own radio show at Kent FM. He took part in the American TV series "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" (1992) while it was filming in Istanbul. In 1994, after he was appointed to Trabzon, he was preparing a new play as a director in the State Theatre of Trabzon. However the play got canceled by the executive directors and he quit. After a successful radio career, he created his own late-night TV show called "Gece Kuşu" ("The Night Bird") in 1995 which brought him fame.

In 1996, he appeared on TV with a new late-night TV show, called "Televizyon Çocuğu" ("The Television Kid").

After 2 years break, he returned with "Zaga", his new late-night TV show, and had a huge success again. In 2004, he offered an alternative publishing model with his new high quality and intellectual show program "Herkes Bunu Konuşuyor" ("Everybody Talks This"). In 2005, the late-night TV show "Televizyon Makinası" ("Television Machine") showed everyone his own creativity and hard work. He continued with Makina (Machine) in 2006 and 2007.

After a year break, he started to a new TV show Disko Kralı, (King of Disco) in 2008.

His acting career started with a Mustafa Altıoklar movie, called "İstanbul Kanatlarımın Altında", in 1996. In 1997, the 5 ft.7 actor won the Best Actor Award at Sadri Alışık Acting Awards, for his role in "Ağır Roman" and continued his acting career successfully, as expected. He acted in "Romantik" (1999), "Oyun Bozan" (2000), "Hemşo" (2001) and "Komser Şekspir" (2001), "Sır Çocukları" (2002) and "Gülüm" (2002) ... and many TV series. He is one of the most popular dubbing performers and many famous Hollywood movies were dubbed into Turkish by him.

He continues his photography works and is also known as a photograph artist since March 2012

Photo exhibitions

Trivia