Cem Yılmaz

Cem Yılmaz
Cem Yılmaz

During his time at Bogazici University’s Department of Tourism and Hotel Management, he began creating comics for the Turkish humor magazine Leman. In August 1995, he unexpectedly ventured into stand-up comedy, performing his first show at the “Leman Culture Center” without any serious career aspirations. However, due to the positive reaction from the audience, he decided to continue his performances and attract larger crowds at the Besiktas Cultural Center. Since then, he has appeared in over a thousand stand-up comedy shows, gaining immense popularity to the extent that tickets have been sold for 250TL (approximately US$140).

His journey in the film industry commenced in 1998 when he landed a co-starring role in the comedy Everything’s Gonna Be Great, directed by Ömer Vargi. He furthered his success with a role in Vizontele (2001), directed by Yilmaz Erdogan and Ömer Faruk Sorak. However, his greatest achievement came with the release of the big-budget science-fiction parody G. . . . (2004), a film he starred in and wrote. Despite facing financial and technical obstacles during production, G. . . . became a box-office hit, demonstrating the ability of popular cinema to captivate diverse audiences, as noted by Rekin Teksoy. He continued his triumphs with a lead role in the comedy feature Magic Carpet Ride (2005), also directed by Yilmaz Erdogan, earning him the Best Supporting Actor award at the 11th Sadri Alisik Awards. Additionally, he made his directorial debut in The Magician (2006), co-directed by Ali Taner Baltaci, for which he won the Best Actor award at the 34th Brussels International Independent Film Festival and the 12th Sadri Alisik Awards. . He also starred in the comedy Western parody Yahsi Bati – The Ottoman Cowboys (2009), directed by Ömer Faruk Sorak. In that same year, he appeared alongside veteran actor Sener Sen in the police drama Hunting Season (2010), written and directed by Yavuz Turgul, and made a special appearance in the drama Zefir (2010), written and directed by Belma Bas. After a two-year hiatus, he featured in Ferzan Özpetek’s A Magnificent Haunting (2012). Following the filming of his last stand-up comedy show CM101MMXI Fundamentals (2013), directed by Murat Dündar, he announced his decision to take a break from stand-up comedy shows for the next few years.

Throughout his illustrious career, he has garnered numerous awards, performed in over 4,000 stand-up comedy shows, participated in 10 movies, and contributed as a dubbing performer in 4 films.