Hakan Kurtaş

Hakan Kurtaş didn't land in acting by a stroke of luck at a shopping mall.

His training at the State Conservatory of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in Istanbul allowed him to understand the craft from a technical standpoint. Before stepping in front of a professional camera, he spent his hours drawing caricatures for satirical magazines such as Leman. This discipline of line and silent observation would shape how he approached scripts years later.

In 2009, he had a brief appearance in the series Ezel.

His debut was modest but enough to enter the circuit of major Turkish production companies. The real shift in his career came in 2011 with his leading role in Bir Çocuk Sevdim. He played Sinan and had to carry a complex family drama that pulled him away from the sketchbook and fully into the film set.

Music as an Escape Valve

Kurtaş has never been an actor limited to a single creative mode.

He plays guitar and writes songs that he sometimes shares with his band Bir Arada. For him, music is a necessary refuge when audience pressure becomes suffocating. He understands that success in television is a volatile phenomenon that should not define his identity as a global artist.

In 2017 he took part in the romantic comedy Dolunay.

His role as Deniz brought him massive international visibility in countries such as Spain. So he seized the momentum to show he could handle lightness without losing the dramatic depth he brought from theater. He took on the challenge of romantic comedy and the series was sold to dozens of territories, which immediately boosted his fee.

And the industry kept calling him.

In 2020, he joined the cast of Mucize Doktor, playing Doruk. It was a considerable technical challenge because of the amount of medical terminology he had to memorize for every episode. He earned a screen share of over 20 percent for several consecutive weeks and secured his place in prime time.

Maturity in the Streaming Era

In 2022, he worked on the series Baba alongside veteran Haluk Bilginer.

This project was a hands-on lesson in how to sustain tension in long scenes with barely any dialogue. Kurtaş played İlhan Karaçam and built a corporate figure full of dark nuances that local critics praised. But the market was shifting toward on-demand viewing.

In 2024, Netflix premiered Kimler Geldi Kimler Geçti.

In this production, he played Cem and shared the screen with Serenay Sarıkaya. The series reached No. 10 worldwide on the platform during its first week on air. Filming for the second season took place in 2025 with a large production effort that included outdoor locations across several provinces in Turkey.

And the gamble paid off.

In 2026, he took part in the feature film Sultana, directed by Ali Kemal Güven. The production had an estimated budget of three million dollars and was shot entirely in high-resolution digital format. The post-production team finished editing in May of that same year to meet international distribution deadlines.