Onur Saylak

Arif Onur Saylak was born in Ankara but raised in Kusadasi (Aydin), Turkey. Until he discovered his passion in theatre, he studied physics at the Middle East Technical University (METU). However, he quit his unlucky choice of studies and tried his luck in a totally different field, public administration at Ankara University, Faculty of Political Sciences. One day, he saw the poster of the university theatre club (Iletisim Fakultesi, Ikinci Kampus Sahnesi) and stepped into amatuer acting life. His desire for acting led him quit the university and win the entry exams of the theatre department of Bilkent University. During his study, he took part in several theatre plays, i.e. Nazim Hikmet's "Her Seye Ragmen", and graduated from the university in 2006. He also began acting on TV for some TV movies as well as mini series: Yuvadan kus uctu (2003), Ask buraya ugramiyor (2004), Ne seninle ne sensiz (2005), Hisarbuselik (2005), Yabanci Damat (2006) and Kod Adi (2006-2007). He became more popular with his noticeable acting in Hisarbuselik and reached to more audience with Kod Adi and Asi. Some time he did work as theatre director for TED (a reputable college in Ankara). Since he has a good voice and he was interested in musical side of theatre, he both took part in choirs at university theatre plays (e.g. Aymazoglu ve Kundakcilar/Biedermann und die Brandstifter by Max Frisch) and wrote lyrics for some plays (i.e. Siradan Bir Gun/Coppia Aperta by Dario Fo at Ankara Oda Tiyatrosu). He was also on stage for the state theatre plays, namely in Getto/Ghetto by Joshua Sobol and Uc Kurusluk Opera/The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht (Ankara Devlet Tiyatrosu). Besides, he was seen on TV screen for a culture-art program on TRT 2 (Turkish National Tv and Radio Channel 2) called "Let's Go/Haydi Gidelim" for 13 episodes, in addition to children program "Benimle Oynar misin?". He won two best actor awards for his outstanding acting in Ozcan Alper's Sonbahar/The Autumn, the best film of 2008 Altin Koza Film Festival. He is acting for a TV series "Gonulcelen/Heart Stealer" on Kanal/Channel D since 2010.