Mert Yazıcıoğlu (born 10 May 1993) is a Turkish actor. He is best known for portraying Baran in the Turkish drama Black Rose (Turkish title: Karagül), Sinan in the teen romantic Netflix series Love 101,[1] and Cüneyd Güneş in the controversial Turkish drama Red Roses[2] (Turkish title: Kızıl Goncalar) as he received various accolades for his outstanding performance.[3]
Early life
Mert Yazıcıoğlu was born on 10 May 1993 in Istanbul.[4] After completing his primary, secondary and high school education in Istanbul, he enrolled in the Management Department of Istanbul Aydın University but then he dropped out to seek acting career.[5]
Career
Upon getting invited to the shooting of a TV series in which his friend was acting, he took the first step towards becoming an actor.[6] First, he joined the Cast 33 agency founded by Sumru Onat and then met actor Ümit Çırak.[7] He soon started to take acting lessons from Ümit Çırak in 3 Mota Eğitim workshops. After studying acting for a while, he made his cinematic debut with the period movie Dedemin İnsanları.
Later, he played the character of "Fırat" in the youth series Umuda Kelepçe Vurulmaz which ran for 15 episodes for Season 1, and also portrayed the character of "Korkut" in the historical series Mehmed: Bir Cihan Fatihi, a series about the life of Ottoman sultan Fatih Sultan Mehmet.[9][10]
He continued his cinematic career by playing the role of "Cenk" in the 2018 movie İyi Oyun.[11] This film revolved around his character "Cenk" who is a recent high school graduate but extremely skilled video gamer. The film received 13 wins & 8 nominations both in Turkey and on international level such as from Sarajevo Film Festival and Rome Film Awards.
Between 2018 and 2019, he had a leading role in Kanal D series Bir Litre Gözyaşı, in which he portrayed the character "Mahir Yetkin" alongside Miray Daner. The series was nominated as Best TV Series by Turkey Youth Awards in 2019.
In 2020 he starred in the drama Bir Annenin Günahı adapted from the Filipino drama, A Mother’s Guilt as "Yusuf", alongside Özge Özberk who starred as his mother. This series only aired for 5 episodes before it was cancelled due to low viewership.
In 2020-2021, he starred in Netflix original series Aşk 101. The series which lasted 2 seasons, became one of Netflix's most popular series, receiving 5 wins and 6 nominations from various awards such as Ayaklı Gazete TV Stars Awards and Turkey Youth Awards.
He then played in Exxens surreal crime limited series Ölüm Zamanı.[12][13][14] This series consisted of 8 episodes.
In 2023, he acted alongside Burak Özçivit in OGM Pictures's Berber directed by Deniz Yorulmazer. The film, in which Özçivit plays a barber named Önder and Yazıcıoğlu plays his apprentice named Ali, will be released on Netflix.[15] However, the date of airing for the film is yet to be announced. From 2023 until 2024, he also starred as "Cüneyd Güneş" where he reunited with actor Özcan Deniz in the series Kizil Goncalar(Red Roses).[16] His portrayal as "Cüneyd Güneş" received many positive significant reviews and the drama itself received steady high ratings during its first season, and moderate ratings during its second season which is still on air.[17] In December 2024 he received his first Golden Butterfly Award for his performance in Kızıl Goncalar.[18]