ercan kesal

Ercan Kesal was born in Avanos, Nevşehir in 1959. He graduated from Ege University, Faculty of Medicine in 1984; between 1984 and 1990, he worked as a physician at various villages and districts of Ankara. He moved to Istanbul in 1990, and there he founded a number of private policlinics and medical centres. He completed his Master’s degree in Applied Psychology at Istanbul Ticaret University, Institute of Social Sciences between 2004 and 2006. Currently, he works as the Chairman of the Executive Board of the Private Okmeydanı Hospital that he founded in 1997, and is pursuing his doctorate degree at Yeditepe University in the Social Anthropology Doctorate Programme.

Ercan Kesal started his film career as an actor in Distant (2002) by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, and continued as a screenwriter and actor in Three Monkeys (2008) and Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011) by the same director. Kesal wrote, directed, and was the leading actor in You Know Him (2020); and received various awards both as an actor and screenwriter at a number of national and international film festivals. His first essays and poems were published during his medical school years at Izmir-based Dönem [Period] magazine. Other than the bi-monthly magazine Şizofrengi, he wrote topical stories and essays at Radikal and Birgün newspapers regularly every Sunday. His published workincludes Peri Gazozu (Fairy Chimney Soda) (İletişim, 2013; Anthem Press, 2019); Evvel Zaman [Once Upon a Time] (İthaki, 2014); Nasipse Adayız [You Know Him] (İletişim, 2015); Zamanın İzinde [In Track of Time] (Ayrıntı, 2016); Aslında [As Far As It Goes] (İletişim, 2017); Bozkırda Bir Gece Yarısı [A Midnight in Moorland] (İletişim, 2017), and Kendi Işığında Yanan Adam: Tanıdığım Metin Erksan [A Man Burn in His Light: Metin Erksan as I Know] (İletişim, 2018).