Yılmaz Erdoğan (born 4 November 1967, Hakkâri, Turkey) is a Turkish filmmaker, actor and poet of Kurdish descent, who is most famous for his box-office record-breaking debut comedy film Vizontele (2001) and the television series Bir Demet Tiyatro (1995–2002/2006-2007). He was awarded the Best Supporting Actor at 4th Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards for his performance in The Water Diviner (2014).

Biography

Yilmaz Erdoğan spent his childhood in Ankara until he moved to Istanbul along with his family. His family is of Kurdish origin. In 1987, he dropped out of his civil engineering studies at Istanbul Technical University and joined the On Duty Theater Staff (Turkish: Nöbetçi Tiyatrosu) managed by Ferhan Şensoy. He also became chief screenwriter at Levent Kırca’s long-running television sketch show, Olacak O Kadar. In 1988, he founded his own theatre company, Güldüşündürü, and staged a successful production of his self-penned Suleiman the Magnificent and Rambo (Turkish: Kanuni Sultan Süleyman ve Rambo).

In 1994, he founded Beşiktaş Cultural Center (Turkish: Beşiktaş Kültür Merkezi) with business partner Necati Akpınar and achieved recognition as Mükremin Abi alongside actress Demet Akbağ in the ground breaking television series Bir Demet Tiyatro (1995–2002) on Star TV. He also continued his theatrical success with a series of plays and musicals, including his one man show, Cebimdeki Kelimeler, and recorded a poetry album called, Kayıp Kentin Yakışıklısı, which includes seventeen poems accompanied by traditional Turkish music composed by Metin Kalender, Nizamettin Ariç and Ali Aykaç.

He achieved his greatest success with the box-office record breaking comedy film Vizontele (2001), which he wrote, directed and starred in. This was followed by a sequel, Vizontele Tuuba (2004), which he also produced, and Magic Carpet Ride (2005). A second run for his popular television series Bir Demet Tiyatro (2006–2007) followed on ATV, and the Christmas comedy film Jolly Life (2009). He has also produced the successful comedy films Eyyvah Eyvah (2010) and Çok Filim Hareketler Bunlar (2010).

His brothers are Mustafa Erdoğan, who founded Fire of Anatolia and Deniz Erdoğan, who has composed music for some of his company's productions. His wife is the actress and costume designer Belçim Bilgin and his daughter Berfin Erdoğan appeared in Magic Carpet Ride. He is a Beşiktaş J.K. fan.