ABOUTApril 2026

Portrait

Three Acts Of A Life

A curiosity that began on a street in Moda became a story stretching from debate stages to film sets, from courtrooms to art, and from there to the world. This is not a success story; it is the self-construction of a man who searches, thinks, changes, and begins again.

Law, cinema, travel - three versions of Ediz — Law. Cinema. Travel. Three languages of the same story.

Let Me Tell You My Story;

Oh, how time passes…

Chapter

1987

Growing Up On A Street Named After A Poet

Şair Latifi Street

I was born in 1987 in Kadıköy Moda, on Şair Latifi Street No. 90. Growing up on a street named after a poet may be why I've always felt so close to words, stories, and narrative. Moda didn't have many parks back then; most of my childhood was spent indoors. You could say I grew up watching films.

And whenever we did go out, Kadıköy's distinctive character meant I often ran into film sets. The moment I realized the films I watched at home were shot on those very sets was the moment I discovered my first real curiosity: “Cinema”.

My education began at Moda College. I have countless memories of that seaside campus; I still visit often — maybe because something there remains unfinished. When financial reasons pushed me into a public school, I suddenly found myself in a completely different world.

Different socioeconomic circles, different lives…

That transition hardened my character.

❝I realized the films I watched at home were shot on the very sets I saw on the streets — and that was when I discovered my life's first curiosity. “Cinema”

Chapter

Youth

I saw the film business wasn't working out — straight to the military..

The Search

High school at Habire Yahşi was demanding, both physically and mentally — long roads home, the intensity of adolescence, the search brought on by an unhappy life… But those were the years that made me who I am.

Cinema was always on my mind. I went from being chased off sets as a kid to stepping into that world as an extra. The set was everything to me; the troubles at home, the empty pockets — none of it mattered there. I'd stand and watch for hours.

Alongside that, my sensitivity to injustice sparked a curiosity about law, but the chance never came. After high school I tried briefly to work in film, couldn't make it stick, and went to do my military service. The time I spent in the mountains of Tokat, Erzincan, and Sivas was real service — a confrontation with the hard side of life. Long-term service dragged on. Across 460 days in the mountains, I had plenty of time to think.

❝Across 460 days of military service, I had plenty of time to think.

Chapter

Debate

Life is a debate.

The Turning Point

Then I said, “It's time I studied.” My first university was Namık Kemal University, where I read Tourism and Hotel Management and graduated first in my class. That ranking opened the way to Istanbul University's Faculty of Economics. It is one of the turning points of my life. There I met debate. On my first speech I shook with nerves and sat straight back down; within a short time I had given myself entirely to it.

Training, tournaments, championships — two years later I was running the Turkish Universities Debate Championship. I organized the Turkish High Schools Debate League for five years and chaired its jury. I opened debate schools across Turkey, working to make people love this discipline. I trained more than a thousand students in debate. And I brought the world's most prestigious event, the 25th World Schools Debating Championship (WSDC), to Turkey. With Siyasal Vakfı the Enderun Debates, with the Turkish Private Schools Association the Turkish Debate League, and with Istanbul University the Istanbul Debate tournaments — many organizations carry my signature.

But the most meaningful of all was the 2011 debate at Istanbul University's Faculty of Political Sciences, where alongside my teacher Mehmet Ö. Alkan we brought right-wing and left-wing friends to the same table. In a university with a long, painful history of ideological conflict, getting people with different views to sit and talk is the most meaningful mark I left. In that same period I wrote one of the first books in the field in Turkey — “Debate and Effective Rhetoric.” Five thousand copies sold out instantly.

Münazara ve Etkin Hitabet kitabı — Münazara ve Etkin Hitabet

Debate carried me into politics. I took on an advisory role for a member of parliament from Istanbul's 2nd district. I came to know the Parliament and saw politics up close. I worked actively in political communication, but with no personal agenda of my own I put distance between myself and politics. Don't let that fool you — after July 15th I was one of the louder voices on television.

In 2014 my daughter was born, and politics wasn't on my mind in that new chapter. I entered the corporate world — sales, marketing, management — serving as General Manager at industry leaders like Sonitel Bilişim and Vivenso Turkey. I got to see business from the inside. But the searching inside me never ended.

Enderun Debate Tournament24 TV · News bulletin

Being a Kadıköy kid, becoming a congress member of my neighborhood club Fenerbahçe felt inevitable. Being Fenerbahçeli, being from Kadıköy, and especially being from Moda are among the deepest senses of belonging in my life.

Fenerbahçe üyeliği — Fenerbahçe SK Genel Kurul Üyeliği

❝Debate taught me not how to speak, but how to listen.

Chapter

Retreat

Three years in North Macedonia — understanding nature and people.

The Growth Years

Some time later, an unusual offer took me to North Macedonia. There I earned a bachelor's degree in behavioral sciences — but my real reason for going was something else.

Vadi & Co · Makedonya — VADİ & Co FARM TEAM

I became a partner in a major hazelnut farm project founded by Vadi & Co. in collaboration with Ferrero. I spent a year training in agriculture — hazelnut growing in particular — and then established the Vadi & Co hazelnut farm, one of the largest plantations in the Balkans. On a hundred dönüms of land we planted 3,000 Nocchione hazelnut trees using the single-trunk system, and I worked on sustainable farming practices. Through it all I spent three years living immersed in nature. While living in Ohrid, alongside my training in modern agricultural techniques, I entered a behavioral sciences program and studied psychology.

All the while I traveled the region — North Macedonia above all, but also Albania, Sarajevo, Kosovo, and Montenegro. I came to know the soil, the people, and the culture of the Balkans up close. Everyone had said I'd be back within three months; I lived on that land for three years, woven into its cultures.

❝Sometimes you must step back to leap forward.

ELF Workshop — Certificates — ELF Workshop

Chapter

Toward the Dream

First screenplay, first direction, first production — awards and the first step into cinema.

Here We Go

ELF Method — Bağdat Caddesi — Bağdat Caddesi Çiftehavuzlar 2020

I returned to Turkey in 2020, with the pandemic, wanting at last to make cinema. But the industry had come to a standstill — nothing had been hit harder by the pandemic than film. While preparing through that period, I co-founded the ELF Method Psychology Center on Bağdat Avenue with psychologist friends, naming it after my daughter. I produced content on personal transformation and deepened my grounding in the field with coaching training from international institutions. With its team of expert psychologists, ELF Method grew quickly.

Pasha's Dream — Afiş — Pasha's Dream — 2021

But cinema never left my mind. In that same period I began writing screenplays, weaving the discipline of psychology into them. As those screenplays drew attention, I decided to step into the industry with my first short film, Paşa'nın Rüyası (Pasha's Dream). Made for the festival circuit, it took on Atatürk's unforgettable work, the Great Speech. Preparing for the speech's final day, Atatürk falls asleep and finds himself a hundred years in the future. What he sees grieves him deeply; when he wakes, he tears up the text he had prepared for that last day and writes a new one: the Address to the Youth…

I wrote it, directed it, even played a small part in it. They say a first work is forgiven its sins — yet it drew far more interest than I expected, won awards, and entered special selections. When that first work was done, I understood: this storm inside me can never be quieted.

Paşa'nın Rüyası seti — Set — Paşa'nın Rüyası

❝I understood: this storm inside me can never be quieted.

Chapter

The Golden Age

Cinema is how one reads the world.

The Rise

Then I took the first big step toward my dreams. I went to TRT and said, “I want to make a documentary.” Our Channel Coordinator, Süleyman Tezgel, believed in me then and gave a great deal of himself to it. It was the kind of opportunity that rarely comes twice, and I learned so much from him. He then asked me to prepare one of the projects TRT valued most: Savunma Sanayi'nin Yalnız Dehaları (The Lone Geniuses of the Defense Industry). That project became my turning point. It was, in truth, a major project TRT had long dreamed of; handing it to me was a real risk for the channel. But Süleyman Bey, bless him, trusted me. The nine-episode series was TRT's first docudrama documentary. We prepared for months. I wrote the screenplay, built the production, and took on the producing as general coordinator. I put labor into every square meter of it, you might say. Of course, had Aytaç Ağdağ not believed in it and come aboard with Aytaç Medya, I could never have made it — his trust was among the greatest reasons we pulled it off. We worked with a large crew and, after a demanding process, carried this one through as well. Together with Süleyman Bey, our director Alper Mestçi, and every friend who gave their labor, I had the chance to leave an unforgettable documentary to history. It now streams on TRT TABİİ.

Behind the Scenes

Lone Geniuses of the Defense Industry

S.S.Y.D. yapımcı set kartı — Ediz Kentkuran

Around that time, Aytaç Ağdağ offered me the post of General Manager at Aytaç Medya, asking that all my projects from then on be made under its roof. First came the horror films Mahlukat and Haile with Alper Mestçi; then the features Güven Bana and Üçlü Pürüz with Selçuk Aydemir. I had the fortune of working with names at the very summit of both horror and comedy.

Then the film projects gathered pace: Haile 2, Efendiler, Nemlizade, Efsane… I served as general coordinator on film after film. The sets grew, the responsibilities multiplied, the hours stretched. I learned every stage of a feature film, A to Z. I had finally reached my dreams. Those years may well have been the happiest of my life. Not once did I say “so cinema isn't what it seems.” I learned once more that those who love what they do can never be said to have worked.

Serdar Gökhan, Cengiz Bozkurt, Selçuk Aydemir, Ahmet Kural

❝Those who do what they love are never truly working.

Chapter

Self-Realization

One day on set, I saw that child from the past.

That Moment

One day on the set of Güven Bana, I was chatting with our director, Selçuk Aydemir. It was an enormous set, and naturally there was no end of work to be done. Production, set crew, camera crew, direction — 110 of us were working together. As the one who had built the set, I kept checking that every team was working to plan, and produced solutions whenever a crisis flared. We had chiefs assigned to all of this, but I could never help myself on set; I was forever tending to these things. That moment was one of those. I was making decisions on everything at once — while also trying to savor the pleasure of being on set.

Then I noticed a large crowd further off trying to watch the set, and our people holding them back. I remembered myself as a child, chased off sets so I wouldn't watch.

I stopped for a moment. I looked at the crowd. I searched for myself in it. And then I realized that the child once chased off those sets had grown up to become the person running one of the country's biggest film sets. I had made six films before that day — yet I was only now seeing it.
And in that very moment, I said, “DONE.” I had made it. Then, of course, I let everyone watch the set. If you asked me the most important ideal in this life, I would say without hesitation: first, realize yourself. And I will go on telling that story.

My TRT2 Interview

Watch on YouTube ↗

❝Then I realized: that child once chased off the sets had grown up to run one of the country's biggest film sets.

Chapter

Traveler

I saw 77 cities across 20 countries, but I found both myself and my wife in Paris.

Paris

As a typical Sagittarius, I spent my whole life traveling. I saw 77 cities across 20 countries. I wandered through Europe inch by inch. The city I loved most was Paris, a childhood dream of mine, and I began returning there constantly. I was coming four or five times a year. It felt as if something was calling me. I walked street by street and felt like a part of that culture. Hemingway says, “Paris is where everything you lost comes back to you.” I first found myself in that city, and only much later understood what had truly been calling me.

Melike and I met there, right beneath the Eiffel Tower. This love became the thing I had never been searching for, yet was happiest to find. On April 3, 2025, we were married in Paris as well — and so Paris was written into one of the most special places of all, our marriage certificate. Place of wedding: Paris :) The city had now brought me both peace and love. Paris truly is where lost things come back to you. Even as the years pass, it has given me feelings that will never fade — and it gives them still.

Wedding in Paris — April 3, 2025 · Paris

❝“Paris is where everything you lost comes back to you.”

Chapter

The Story Continues.

My final childhood dream came true as well.

Keep Growing.

But the story isn't over. One ambition still lingered inside me. In my recent years it began pressing me. I'd made an attempt at Istanbul University back then, but the rush of life kept me from continuing. Now I had to finally study law.

I enrolled at Doğuş University's Faculty of Law — one of Istanbul's earliest and most established private universities. I learned law from truly distinguished veteran teachers. My curiosity about law wasn't for nothing — a full-fledged lawyer emerged from inside me. I graduated with honors.

I am now pursuing a master's degree in public law. My field is an intersection that grows more consequential in Turkey every year yet remains thinly studied: the common ground between constitutional law and criminal law — where fundamental rights and freedoms meet the limits of the power to punish. I want to write and produce work in this area, and leave something lasting in the literature. I have begun academic work in this field.

❝Throughout my life I moved through many different fields, but I was always doing the same thing;
Understanding People, Telling Their Stories, and Creating Value.

A final word, by way of summary;

We are neither this, nor that.

We are an unending line.

No one knows what we are;

We are whoever sees us, however they see us.

Ediz Kentkuran