Sanat Ensemble

I have been acting and directing in various theatres and writing my own plays since 2003. I have directed more than 15 theatre productions.

I have also brought my own stage versions of literary classics such as “War and Peace”, “Crime and Punishment”, “Dorian Gray” and “The Marquise of O.” to the stage.

I have also worked as director and actor at Theater Oberhausen, the Landesbühne Rheinland-Pfalz, the Kleine Theater Bad Godesberg, the Westdeutsche Tourneetheater, the International Theatre Frankfurt, the Horizont Theater Köln, the Bürgerhaus Stollwerck Köln, the Kölner Künstler Theater and others.

In addition since 2011, I have toured throughout Germany as a cabaret artist. I am currently performing my solo programme “ehrlich gesagt…” as well as the duo programme “Nord-Süd-Gefühle” in various cabaret venues across the country.

I have been nominated for 14 different awards for my solo and duo cabaret programmes, and I have won four competitions, including the Lower Saxony Cabaret Prize “Laupenpieper 2013”, the Melsungen Cabaret Prize 2015 and the Hessian Cabaret Prize 2018.

I also work for radio. I am one of the presenters of the Turkish radio programme Cosmo Türkçe on WDR Cosmo.
My radio play “Cenaze/Die Beerdigung” was produced and broadcast by WDR5 in 2010.

My short film “Father” received the “Best Cast Award” at the Alternative Film Festival Winter 2017 in Toronto and was “Best Short Film” at the Lower Rhine Short Film Festival 2018.

Burçin Keskin was born in Cologne and initially studied music theatre at the Fontys Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in the Netherlands.

During her studies she performed the NSU monologues and asylum dialogues for the Bühne für Menschenrechte at Schauspiel Dortmund, Heimathafen Neukölln and Staatstheater Kassel.

This was followed by engagements as an actress and singer at the International Theatre Frankfurt, the Comedia Theatre, the Grenzlandtheater Aachen and a European tour with Semmel Concerts.

In 2020, she founded the Katharsis Kollektiv together with her colleague Miriam Meißner, where she is active as part of the artistic direction and as a performer.

With their first production “Gastfrau - Zwischen Heim und Weh”, the collective made a guest appearance at Schauspiel Köln and elsewhere, in which Burçin acted as artistic director and performer. She can also be seen regularly in various independent productions throughout Germany, for example by Paradeiser Productions, Ulbe Produktions and Mesut Bayraktar.

In addition to her work as an actress, Burçin can be heard as a singer and musician in various Middle Eastern music formations. She wrote the song “Yeni Dünya” to mark the 60th anniversary of the recruitment agreement between Turkey and Germany, which was performed as part of the exhibition “Who We Are” at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn.

She also works as an empowerment trainer for MIRE (people with experiences of intersectionality and racism) at Holla e.V. and gives acting workshops at Comedia Köln and Kölner Künstler:innen Theater.

I was born in Düsseldorf in 1982, my parents come from the Black Sea region in Turkey. As the eldest child of so-called “guest workers”, I grew up in a district of Düsseldorf and spent my school years there until I completed my vocational diploma. I originally planned to study business administration. An acquaintance gave me the advice that I should attend acting classes so that I would be able to speak freely in front of people in sales later on.

In the end, I realised that the stage suited me far better than business and that I could develop freely there, so I decided to become an actor. I had ambitions and some good luck and after a few auditions I was accepted at the “Schauspielschule der Keller” in Cologne.

During my training, I was able to take part in various productions at the “Theater der Keller, Köln”, the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus and the Wuppertaler Bühnen.

After I qualified for the stage, further engagements took me to the Feuchtwangen open-air theatre, the Hagen municipal theatre and the Wiesbaden state theatre. I was also invited to audition for cinema and television, which were successful. I played a German sailor in the adventure film “Männer der Emden” about a warship during the First World War and was given the opportunity to take my first professional steps in front of the camera alongside experienced actors. This was followed by further filming for public television and cinema. Among other things, I played in the auteur film “Oray”, which won the award for “Best First Feature Film” at the 2019 Berlinale.

Mostly cast in supporting roles, often as the villain, but also in dramatic and comedic roles, I was able to let off steam in front of the camera and on stage. To this day, I have appeared on stage in hundreds of performances and still do so with the same passion and joy as at the beginning of my career.

I’ve lived in Cologne since 2005 and feel at home in this lively city. (And I say that as a Düsseldorfer).

Agency:
https://ramageissler.com/

Links
http://www.schauspielervideos.de/fullprofile/schauspieler-baris-ar.html
https://www.castforward.de/members/profile/baris-ar
https://www.filmmakers.eu/actors/baris-ar

Mirjam Radovic has been a freelance actress and speaker for radio and television in Cologne since 2007.

She has performed at the Paderborn Theatre, the Ulmer Theatre, Altes Schauspielhaus Stuttgart, Buhnen Krefeld Mönchengladbach, Westfälisches Landestheater, Theater Kohlenpott Herne, Fwt Cologne, among others.

She was co-founder of the collective Firma F, with whom she realised her own projects and performances such as DER URSPRUNG DER WELT, inspired by the writings of Liv Strömquist.

She regularly announces for ZDF children’s television and for documentary formats and commercials and also works as a dubbing artist.

I was born on the Baltic Sea and grew up on the North Sea.

After half a degree in theatre and literature in Berlin, I did a full degree in acting. My first engagement was in Kassel, after which I moved to Cologne, more for personal reasons than anything else, and got stuck here to a certain extent, which I don’t regret at all.

Since then I have been working as an actor in various theatres, mainly in Cologne, but also in Aachen, Neuss and Bonn, where I began started directing three years ago.

My other main area of work is speaking - I am a member of the WDR and Deutschlandfunk voice-over ensembles, where I present both news and reports of all kinds for radio and television, as well as for various clients in the fields of dubbing, PC games and advertising.

I also work as a lecturer at the Keller Drama School.

Serdar Altan was born in Karlsruhe in 1992. He gained his first acting experience at the age of eight in a fringe theatre. After graduating from high school, he studied Intercultural Management and obtained his Bachelor of Science in 2017. He then trained as an actor at the Hamburg acting studio Frese. Since then, he has appeared at Kampnagel Hamburg, Hagen Theatre, Schlosstheater Celle and in several films. In 2023, he played a leading role in the American film “The Collaborator”, based on the novel of the same name by Mirza Waheed. Serdar Altan lives in Cologne.

In my youth I received lessons in cello, recorder, trumpet and classical dance. I studied elementary music and dance pedagogy at the ‘Mozarteum’ in Salzburg, majoring in violoncello, followed by studies in jazz cello at the ‘University of the Arts’ in Arnhem, NL. I have developed a repertoire that is inspired by my encounters with people and artists from different countries and cultures, both abroad and in Germany. I break new ground in the way I play the cello by expanding the traditional sound spectrum beyond the classical boundaries, for example percussively, with electronic effects, with oriental scales and ornaments or in combination with my own voice.

At international concerts and on CDs in the fields of world music, jazz and classical music, I have played with Afghan singer Aryana Sayeed, the Kurdish musicians Mehmet Akbas, Mikail Aslan and Cemîl Qocgîrî, the Iraqi composer and musician Saad Thamir, the jazz pianist Laia Genc and the Cologne band Kasalla, among others.

As a composer, musician and music teacher, I have been involved in international dance theatre productions in Luxembourg, the ‘Monteure’ theatre in Kassel and currently in the musical production ‘Abenteuerland’ at the Capitol Theater Düsseldorf. Since 2023 I have been performing with my piano trio ‘Trio Sêreng’ and with the Kurdish-Iranian singer and dotar player Yalda Abbasî. We four women combine the tradition of Mesopotamia with Western classical music and jazz, set Kurdish pieces to music and champion Kurdish culture and self-determination in our artistic work. In December 2024, WDR will broadcast one of our concerts live on the radio.

Born and raised in Bari (Italy) in 1968, I discovered my passion for the guitar as a child thanks to my father, who studied music. As a teenager, I had my first rock band experiences and wrote and sang my first pop songs.

Inspired by the music of George Benson, I landed in the world of jazz and improvisation. This was later followed by masterclasses and seminars with jazz guitarists such as Pat Metheny, Mike Stern, Joe Diorio, Scott Henderson, Nico Stufano, Riccardo Bianchi, Umberto Fiorentino, Frank Gambale, Michael Landau, Kurt Rosenwinkel, etc.

At the beginning of the 90s, I founded my own jazz trio touring throughout Europe and I took part in many other jazz projects.

At the same time I played in the field of pop music as a guitarist in various productions and tours with singers from the Festival di Sanremo.

In 1994, I was offered a long tour for a variety show in Germany. After almost 300 concerts, I ended up in Cologne in 1995 and stayed there, where I started out as a guitar teacher.

In 2000, I founded the label EGPrecords and the music publishing company with its own recording studio.

In addition to countless jazz-pop-rock concerts, projects, theatre and TV appearances (with Take That and Joe Cocker, among others), I composed pop songs and instrumental pieces for guitar and vocals with positive reviews from the trade journals.

My music is often broadcast on RTL, ZDF, VOX, KAB1, MDR3, HR3, RBB3, KK, 3SAT, ARD, BR3, WDR3 as well as on American TV channels.

To date, I have recorded 10 CDs and published a guitar book with my music as a singer-songwriter and guitarist.

I have received various music awards in the USA for this such as The Prestige Music Award 2016, The Global Music Awards 2016 and 2021, LIT Talent Awards 2022 and 2023.

Johanna Stein, born in Cologne in 1983, grew up in a musical family and started playing the cello at the age of 7.

She played in string orchestras at an early age, took part in choir projects and became a member of the Cologne Youth Symphony Orchestra at the age of 13. As a teenager, she played in rock bands and began improvising with the cello and her voice. She first encountered world music at the Summer Music Festival, where she has been giving rock string workshops since 2005.

She completed her classical studies at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, Scotland in 2007, followed by a Master’s programme at the Conservatory in Arnhem, Netherlands.

Her passion for her unconventional playing of the cello and her voice, which is characterised by naturalness and presence, allow her to present herself in a wide variety of projects. In addition to her solo programme, she can be heard in the chamber-pop duo ‘SteinMays’, the quinteto non-tipico ‘Tango de Minas’, the avant-garde string quartet ‘Badz’ and the big band ‘Été Large’, among others.

With her enthusiasm and her talent for immersing herself in the most diverse genres and styles, she has enriched the International Festival ‘Akkordeonale’ for many years.

The multi-stylistic cellist and singer feels at home on any stage and in any line-up; whether classical, jazz, rock, pop, fusion or world music - no style is alien to her.

• Studied ethnology, musicology and Latin at the University of Erlangen
• Concert exam percussion Cologne University of Music
• New music musical collaboration with Toru Takemitsu (workshop with concert), Alois Zimmermann (WDR Symphony Orchestra), Mikis Theodorakis Orchestra
• Scholarships in New York and Banff (School Of Fine Arts, Canada)
• Tours in Europe, CIS, Asia, North + South America, North Africa, Australia, Singapore and Indonesia for the Goethe Institute/Foreign Office with award-winning jazz (Prize of the German Phono Academy), world music and pop formations (including TRIO RIO-with co-written hit: New York Rio Tokyo,
• RAINBIRDS Hit: Blueprint of my lover), YARINISTAN -Orienthit:Lorke Lorke, PATA MASTERS, A TOUCH OF FLAMENCO…)
• Radio plays for WDR, SWF, HR, DLF
• Theatre music as a soloist (Deutsches Theater Berlin - Hölderlin Project with Robert Gallinowsky, Staatstheater Hamburg, Theater Bonn, Stadttheater Düsseldorf)
• Music/composition for Schauspiel Düsseldorf: Misanthrope (Moliere), Rico, Oskar und die Tieferschatten, Schneider Wibbel,In 80 Tagen Um Die Welt, The Queens Men (with Peter Jordan+Leo Koppelmann
• Music/composition for Landestheater Innsbruck:Kasimir and Karoline
• In the team for directors Michael Simon, Frank Hofmann, Igor Bauersima, Karin Beier, Nicolas Stemann, Johannes Schütz
• Productions with Dominique Horwitz, Tommy Engel (Bläck Fööß), Gerd Köster (Piano has been drinking), Singende Säge with Hubert von Goisern, Gunther Hampel
• Events as responsible music + programme designer for various large companies in Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa, (e.g. Roland Rechtschutz, Thyssen, VW, Dynamit Nobel, Victoria, Schwarz Pharma Musical direction IGA Berlin
• Has played in numerous productions, sessions and guest appearances with, among others Wolfgang Niedecken, Charlie Mariano, Tommy Engel, Hubert v.Goisern, Dave Liebmann, Dave Friedman, Dave Holland, Arsch Huh Band, Höhner, Brings, Helmut Zerlett, Grimme Preis…and many more.

Peter Bach was born in Essen in 1947. He was the first in his extended family to complete his A-levels and go to university, but gave it up, much to his family’s dismay. From May 1973, he worked at Ford in Cologne and enjoyed four days of the Ford strike in August 1973. He was lucky enough to be able to experience similar rebellious events in other metal and chemical companies after his dismissal. In 2004, he was able to leave the chemical industry with an early retirement scheme and visited and participated in projects in Venezuela, West Africa and France. All this time, research and debate on perspectives on Cologne-Mülheim’s neighbourhood and migration history remained a focal point within the framework of a history workshop.

Gülay Batak (born Kaynak). I was born on 29.07.1977 in Bad Honnef. My parents took me to Turkey to live with my grandmother when I was just 40 days old. I stayed there until I was seven and had finished first grade. Then they brought me back to Germany. Here I had to repeat first grade because I couldn’t speak any German. I went to the Longenburg primary school in Niederdollendorf. My secondary school was the Hauptschule in Königswinter Niederdollenforf. I met my husband in 1994 and we got married in 1995 when I was 18. I am the mother of two boys.

I’ve been playing hockey for five years, which I enjoyed playing in my youth, and I’ve been doing athletics as a hobby for 14 years.

I currently work as a taxi driver for my son’s company.

My name is Pinar (meaning in Turkish: “the source”) and I was born in 1985 in Brühl, but grew up in Hürth. I have lived in Königswinter since 2008.

I trained as a commercial assistant and have been working full-time at Deutsche Telekom for over 10 years. Before my employment at Deutsche Telekom, I had various jobs, but my work with children and young people was particularly formative for me. Maybe that’s the reason why I’m such a strong family person.

In addition to my entire school and professional career, music, choir and theatre have always been my absolute passions. I am an active member of various organisations in this regard, including the Königswinter association “Nicht Davor Nicht Dahinter - Kultur und Kunst Königswinter e.V.”, as well as the Königswinter women’s choir.
I also got to know Nedim Hazar in connection with the women’s choir. As time went on, I learnt more about his plans and projects, which fascinated and captivated me from the very first moment. I am glad to have been part of Nedim Hazar’s team in some of his projects, including the entire tour under the name “Deutschlandlieder” and previously in the musical “Nicht Davor Nicht Dahinter”, and I am looking forward to future projects with him. As my father also came to Germany as a guest worker, the “Deutschlandlieder” ensemble was a particularly interesting experience for me.

The music and dance has always accompanied me throughout my life. Even as a teenager, we were constantly thinking up and devising scenarios, which we then acted out with my cousins in the theatre at home.

Throughout my life, I have always lived by the motto “everyone deserves a smile”

Born 10 March 1967.

I am a hairdresser, mother of two and have been part of the choir since 2021. I was born and raised in Elazig in Turkey and first came to Germany when I was 14. I attended secondary school here, graduated and started my training as a hairdresser. I worked in hairdressing salons for the first 17 years until I decided to become self-employed in 2007. Since then, I’ve been going from house to house and visiting many customers I’ve known for decades. In August 2021, a good friend of mine offered me the chance to join the choir in Königswinter, which I was delighted to accept. It was a dream come true for me, as I have always been passionate about music. That year, I took part in the musical “Nicht davor und nicht dahinter, Heimatmusical in vielen Sprachen”, which was directed by Nedim Hazar Bora. This was followed by the big “Deutschlandlieder” tour in various German cities, which was also filmed and screened at the film festival in Istanbul, among other places. I’m looking forward to continuing to work with Nedim and our great group and to many new experiences!

I am Sultan Tarhan, born in 1967 in Erzurum/Hinis, Eastern Anatolia. My roots are in Mus/Varto, a region with a rich Kurdish-Turkish culture. In 1968, my father, Kemal Tarhan, came to Germany as a guest worker. A year later, in 1976, my mother Porsor, my siblings Ayten, Erdal, Erhan, Aysel and I followed him to Germany. We settled in Cologne-Meschenich, where I spent my childhood and youth.

Our family continued to grow in the years that followed: my sister Ayşe was born in 1979 and my brother Ayhan was born in 1982. In total, we lived as seven siblings in Cologne-Meschenich, which characterised our childhood and youth.

After leaving school, I trained as a pharmaceutical and commercial assistant in 1989 and qualified as a wholesale and foreign trade clerk in 2001. Today I work as an office administrator at the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food in Bonn.

My greatest passion is music. Even as a child, I sang Kurdish and Turkish folk songs. I started playing the saz, a traditional instrument of our culture, when I was 15. I have been a member of the women’s choir of the Alevi Cultural Association Siebengebirge since 2010. A special moment in my musical career was my participation in the film “Deutschlandlieder / Almanya Türküleri” in 2022/2023, in which our women’s choir was represented under the direction of Mr Nedim Hazar.

Today, I am the mother of two children and grandmother of two grandchildren. My family and my cultural identity are central elements of my life. I am grateful for the opportunities that Germany has given me and I am happy to be able to combine my cultural and professional interests.

I was born in Tunceli in 1965 and grew up there. I attended Atatürk primary school there and later secondary school for three years, but I had to drop out in the middle of year nine.

I came to Germany in 1981 as a child of guest workers. I attended the vocational school in Bonn-Duisdorf. I then worked in various jobs in the healthcare sector. My last job was at the paediatric clinic in Bonn.

I’ve been part of the choir in Königswinter for a few years now, pursuing my hobby. Through this hobby, I got to know Nedim Hazar in 2021, which led to several projects that were made possible by him. In August 2021, we performed the musical “Nicht davor, nicht dahinter” in Königswinter. In October of the same year, we started our tour called “Deutschland Lieder”, which we dedicated to the guest workers who left their homeland 60 years ago to work in Germany.

I am very grateful to be part of these projects and look forward to our future work all the more.

Eko Fresh was born Ekrem Bora in Cologne in 1983. Filmmaker and musician Nedim Hazar Bora is his father. After his parents divorced, his mother moved to Mönchengladbach with the young Eko Fresh. He took an early interest in hip-hop. He started rapping himself at the age of 15 and was discovered just two years later by German rapper Kool Savas - who took him to Berlin. Eko Fresh’s first EP release followed in 2001, with which he slowly made a name for himself.

In 2002, Eko Fresh signed a record deal with Kool Savas’ newly founded label and was also featured on the label boss’ debut album. Just one year later, however, the two artists fell out and Eko Fresh left the Berlin label. His first album, “Ich bin jung und brauche das Geld” (2003) managed to reach 16th place in the charts. The Sony label BMG liked the rapper - another record deal followed.

During this time, Eko Fresh was not only active as a rapper, he also had jobs as a songwriter. In 2004, he contributed to the song Du hast mein Herz gebrochen by Yvonne Catterfeld. Together with his girlfriend Valezka, he also released the R’n’B-heavy album “L.O.V.E.” (Life of Valezka and Eko) in the same year - however, the “departure” from his usual musical influences was met with criticism.

He briefly put his music on ice in 2007, but returned in 2009 with a new EP entitled “Jetzt kommen wir wieder auf die Sachen”. Since then, the rapper has been extremely busy. Between 2010 and 2017, he released seven LPs, including the number one album “Eksodus” (2013) and “König von Deutschland” in 2017.

Gün Tank is an author and presenter. She was the curator of the exhibition “22:14 …und es kamen Frauen” (2011), about the first female migrant workers in Germany and the CrossKultur event series, an annual cultural series with readings, exhibitions, concerts, theatre, film and conferences. Today, she is the commissioner for people with disabilities in the Tempelhof-Schöneberg district. In 2015 and 2021, she received the Literature Work and Research Grant from the State of Berlin. “The Optimists. Roman unserer Mütter” is her debut novel, which premiered at the Maxim Gorki Theatre Berlin in 2024. In the same year, “Die Optimistinnen. Roman unserer Mütter” was adapted for the Bielefeld City Theatre.

Scientist, activist and author

I was born in 1969 in Akçadağ/Turkey, and grew up in Cologne as the child of a “guest worker family”. My father first worked at the Ford plant in Cologne and later at Bayer in Leverkusen. After studying political science, education and German language and literature in Cologne and Bonn, I completed my doctorate in 2003 under Prof Dr Christoph Butterwegge at the University of Cologne. In my dissertation “I am proud to be Turkish!” (2005), I dealt with the re-ethnicisation and re-nationalisation of German-Turkish young people. After completing my doctorate, I led numerous educational projects to support young people, including “Schulen ans Netz”. As managing director of IFAK e.V., I was responsible for child and youth welfare projects and migration work. Today, I work mainly on a voluntary basis at interKultur e.V. Cologne and manage the community centre in Cologne-Mülheim.

Since 2018, I have been Professor of Social Work and Social Sciences at the IU International University of Applied Sciences in Cologne, where I headed the Social Sciences department for several years. Before that, I was a deputy professor at Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts and a lecturer at the University of Cologne. My publications include “Die haben gedacht, wir waren das” (2016) and “Damit wir Atmen können” (2021), which deal with racism and right-wing violence from the perspective of those affected, particularly in connection with the NSU murders and the attacks in Halle and Hanau. Together with Hasan Kaygısız, I published “The New Sultan” in 2017, a critical analysis of political developments in Turkey. In collaboration with Emre Arslan, I have produced anthologies on the “Symbolic Order”, which deal with topics such as educational inequality (2016), refugee movements (2019) and criticism of racism (2024). My academic and educational work contributes to the current debate on migration, racism and the culture of remembrance in Germany.

Dr Lale Akgün was born on 17 September 1953 in Istanbul. Living in Germany since 1962, she is a licensed psychological psychotherapist and author of books and articles on the subject of Islam and integration. Her bestseller “Tante Semra im Leberkäseland” was made into a film for ARD.

Her most recent book was “Hüzün…das heißt Sehnsucht - wie wir Deutsche werden und Türken blieben”.
Lale Akgün studied medicine, psychology and ethnology in Marburg and received her doctorate in Cologne.
She began her professional career in 1981 as a psychologist at the family counselling centre of the city of Cologne.

From 1997 to 2002, she set up the NRW State Centre for Immigration, the first institute for migration and integration in Germany, and headed it until her election as a member of the Bundestag in 2002.

She sat in the German Bundestag for two legislative periods as an SPD MP for the south-west of Cologne. She is the first directly elected member of parliament with a migration background in Germany. After leaving the Bundestag, she worked in the state chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia.

She is currently on the boards of the Federal Working Group of Secular and Humanists of the SPD, the Otto Benecke Foundation and the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation.

She is Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board of the Kuratorium Deutsche Altershilfe and continues to serve on the Executive Committee of the International Federation and the Supervisory Board of IB West.

In Cologne, she is the chairwoman of the Africologne theatre and culture festival and co-spokeswoman of Globale Musik e.V.

She is a recipient of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Giesberts-Lewin Prize.

Lale Akgün is married, mother of a grown-up daughter and lives in Cologne.

I was born in Izmir in 1971 and attended the German section of Bornova Anatolian High School.

I have been living in Istanbul since 1990. I was enrolled as a student at the Faculty of Economics at Istanbul University for many years, but did not graduate. I entered the labour market as a newspaper delivery boy. At the same time, I earned good money selling pirated music cassettes at street stalls. Because of my record collection, I was offered a job as a radio DJ and started working in radio.

I then became a reporter for a weekly news magazine. In the years that followed, I worked as a reporter and editor for various daily newspapers and magazines. Every time I became unemployed or took a break, I returned to my job as a DJ in bars, clubs and at weddings. In 2004 I started working as an editor at the television station NTV.
From 2006, I worked with Nedim Hazar at NTV. The Gezi events in 2013 marked the end of my time at NTV. In the years that followed, I worked freelance for various print and visual media for a long time. I currently work as an editor for a publishing house.

Guenay Ulutuncok was born in Istanbul in 1954. During his studies, he worked as a trainee, photographer and layout designer at the Cologne city newspaper Kölner Volksblatt

After studying architecture and tropical technology in Cologne, he co-founded the photographers’ agency “laif Photos & Reportagen” in Cologne at the end of 1981. His work focuses on reportages on political and social conflicts as well as cultural and ethnic diversity for German and international magazines.

From 1982 to 1986, he travelled to and spent time in the Middle East and North Africa on several occasions, covering topics such as the Middle East crisis, the Lebanon war, Afghanistan, the Cyprus conflict and the Western Sahara war. From 1986, the focus of his reportage shifted to topics in sub-Saharan Africa.

I was born in Ankara in 1960 and grew up in Sydney and have lived in Germany intermittently since 1980. I was an actor in Recklinghausen, played in films, made music and sang in the rock band Yarinistan (German Record Critics’ Award 1986 and 1988) and presented music programmes on the radio. Since the mid-90s, I have dedicated myself to film and television. I attended the screenwriting school at IFS Cologne and studied directing at the Maurits Binger Film Institute in Amsterdam. I made my first 90-minute documentary film “Zuflucht am Bosporus” in 2001 for ZDF - 3sat’s “Kleine Fernsehspiel”.

In 2003, I moved to Istanbul, where I worked for the Turkish broadcaster NTV for ten years, shooting and producing dozens of documentaries and primetime programmes that received wide media coverage, high ratings and awards. I was sacked during the Gezi protests in Istanbul in 2013. Between 2014 and 2015, I developed a prime-time TV series (21 episodes x 90 min.), for which I wrote the first three scripts myself.

As my German wife was expelled from Turkey for political reasons, we returned to Germany in mid 2018.

Before the pandemic, I wrote the revue “Songs and Stories in Transit” in 2019 (world premiere: Volksbühne Köln), in which I also performed. In 2021, my non-fiction book “Deutschlandlieder - Almanya Türküleri” was published by Rotbuch Verlag. Under the same title, I organised a concert series with around 25 musicians and with hits by Turkish and Kurdish immigrants on popular stages in Cologne, Essen, Bonn, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Rudolstadt, Berlin and Istanbul to mark the 60th anniversary of the German-Turkish recruitment agreement. My documentary film of the same name (90 min.) about these songs and the concert series was shown at various film festivals in Istanbul, Prague, Izmir, Bern and Zurich and broadcast on 3Sat on 29 October 2023.

Founder and concertmaster of the Modern Strings from 1992 to 2007, an ensemble focussing on non-European new music, radio recordings and CDs with music from Turkey, Palestine, Israel and Argentina/Uruguay, tours including at the invitation of the Goethe Institute in Greece, Denmark, Turkey and South America. Concerts “In the Light of the Crescent” in Bonn and at the start of the Cologne-Istanbul city partnership in Istanbul and on WDR Cologne: Byzantium-Constantinople-Istanbul. Composer for the Orchestra Campus Turkey at the Beethoven Festival 2013, among others, in 2018 project “Winterreise - Fremd bin ich eingezogen, fremd zieh’ ich wieder aus”, a musical encounter between musicians who have fled to Germany and musicians living here.

Head of the Josef Metternich Music School in Hürth as a music teacher from 2007 to 2018, project manager of many intercultural and participatory, creative musical projects and composition workshops with children and young people, including “KommUnity” on the 50th anniversary of the recruitment agreement with Turkey, music project and concert tour of youth orchestras to Eskisehir, Ankara and Istanbul, Vienna and Chile. Honoured with the SPARDA Music Network Award for the projects “Gemeinsam:Zuhause in Hürth” and “KommUnity”. Lecturer at the Cologne University of Music and Dance in the field of music education with a focus on intercultural work, Chairman of the North Rhine-Westphalia State Association of Music Schools.


Since 2019 head of the certificate course “Music Education for Musicians of Different Cultures” at the Landesmusikakademie NRW and the Cologne University of Music and Dance Co-project manager of “Deutschlandlieder - Almanya türküleri” together with Nedim Hazar (www.deutschlandlieder.de), spokesperson for Globale Musik Köln e.V. since 2021.

Born in London in 1956, he has lived in Germany since 1990. Studied theatre at the University of Warwick, Great Britain. Works as an author, speaker, producer and director. He also worked as a journalist for 12 years.

He is the author of more than 30 plays. His speciality is comedy, but he has also written several biographical plays based on Bertolt Brecht, “Echt Brecht”, the spy Mata Hari and about the phenomenon, Wilhelm Reich, “Cloudbuster - Die Funktion des Orgasmus”. His plays have been staged in a number of different countries - the USA, Great Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Slovenia.

“Baha and the Wild Seventies” is his second collaboration with Nedim Hazar Bora.