Murathan Muslu

Murathan Muslu never studied acting at any prestigious academy. His school was hip hop on the streets of Vienna, under the alias Itanda.

He was a member of the group Suave in 1996. That music phase eventually opened the door to film by accident, when director Umut Dağ noticed his physical presence for the short film Papa in 2011.

It worked.

The Streets as His Art School

His feature film debut came in 2012 with Kuma. In this film, he played a young man caught up in the traditions of a Turkish family living in Austria. But it was in 2014 that his name began to make real noise in the offices of European producers.

He starred in Risse im Beton and won the Austrian Film Award for Best Actor. He played a man who leaves prison after ten years and tries to move away from his criminal past. Critics noted that his presence filled the frame without the need for long dialogue or dramatic tricks.

Before filming, he usually researches the social background of his characters. In 2017, he took part in the series 4 Blocks. This production, about criminal clans in Berlin, let him show a drier, more restrained style that caught the attention of the international industry.

In 2019, he shared the screen with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the thriller 7500. The film takes place almost entirely inside an airplane cabin, and Muslu played one of the hijackers with suffocating intensity. That same year, he shot Pelikanblut with Nina Hoss under the direction of Katrin Gebbe.

Soldiers, Empresses and Thieves

The arrival of global streaming platforms multiplied his visibility beyond Central Europe. In 2020, he took on Marbod's armor in the series Barbarians. The shoot was a complex one in Hungarian locations, requiring constant physical effort in front of the camera.

And the phone didn't stop ringing.

In 2022, he played a key role in The Empress, Netflix's take on the life of Sissi. His ability to fit into period dramas without losing his contemporary edge kept him from being typecast as juvenile delinquents. Because Muslu knows that physicality is a tool, but silence is a weapon on screen.

During 2024, he starred in the series Crooks. In this project, he plays Charly, a retired locksmith who is forced to take part in the theft of a priceless gold coin. The shoot was split between Berlin, Vienna and Marseille under the direction of Marvin Kren.

The production of Crooks had an estimated budget of two million euros per episode to ensure the realism of the outdoor action sequences.