Cem Yılmaz

For the rower, see Cem Yılmaz (rower).

Cem Yılmaz (Turkish pronunciation: [ˈdʒem jɯɫˈmaz] ^ⓘ, born 23 April 1973) is a Turkish actor, stand-up comedian, musician, filmmaker, screenwriter, and cartoonist. He has four franchise film series G.O.R.A., Karakomik Fimler, Organize İşler, Vizontele. Also, He is best known for his films Yahşi Batı, Hokkabaz, İftarlık Gazoz, Av Mevsimi and has won three Sadri Alışık awards and Yeşilçam award for his roles. His international films are Russell Crowe's film "Water Diviner" and Ferzan Özpetek's film "Magnifica presenza".^[1][2]

Cem Yılmaz
Born	(1973-04-23) 23 April 1973 (age 51) Fatih, Istanbul, Turkey
Alma mater	Boğaziçi University
Occupations	Actor comedian musician filmmaker
Years active	1995–present
Spouse	Ahu Yağtu ​ ​ (m. 2012; div. 2013)​
Children	1
Relatives	Tolga Çevik (brother-in-law)
Website	www.cmylmz.com

Early life and education

Yılmaz was born on 23 April 1973 in Istanbul. His family is paternally from Gürün, Sivas, while maternal part of his family is of Turkish origin who immigrated from Thessaloniki, Ottoman Empire (nowadays in Greece).^[3] He went to primary school at the Mehmet Akif School. He then got enrolled in the Bahçelievler Kazım Karabekir Secondary School, and then Etiler Anadolu Tourism Vocational High School, eventually going to Boğaziçi University and finishing his studies in Tourism and Hotel Management.^[4]

Career

In 1998, he had his cinematic debut with the movie Everything's Gonna Be Great. Yılmaz achieved his greatest success by starring in and writing the big-budget sci-fi parody G.O.R.A. (2004), also directed by Ömer Faruk Sorak. Despite spending several years in production because of financial and other technical problems, G.O.R.A. became a box-office hit and, according to Rekin Teksoy, "showed that popular cinema was successful in appealing to wide audiences".^[5] He has since repeated his box office successes with a sequel to G.O.R.A called A.R.O.G., The Magician and Yahşi Batı, and has appeared in more than 10 films and worked as a voice actor in a number of motion pictures.^[6] He played in the movie "Water Diviner" of Russell Crowe.

Yılmaz started doing stand-up shows in the bars of Leman Kültür in the early 1990s. He has since created four stand-up specials. In addition, he has directed the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra twice.^[7][8]

During the course of his career, Cem Yılmaz has been the commercial face of Panasonic, Opet, Türk Telekom, Türkiye İş Bankası and Doritos, among others. The caricatures that he has drawn and the scenario of three of his movies that were released in the form of a book were well received by fans.^[9]

He has also received a number of awards inside Turkey, including a "Best Actor Award" at the Sadri Alışık Awards^[10] and the 4th Yeşilçam Awards.^[11]

Personal life

His brother is writer Can Yılmaz [tr]. His sister married comedian Tolga Çevik.^[12]

On 10 March 2012, he married Ahu Yağtu. The couple divorced on 31 December 2013. Together they have a son named Kemal.^[13]

Filmography

Films
Year	Title	Credited as					Notes
		Director	Producer	Writer	Actor	Role
1998	Everything's Gonna Be Great (Turkish: Her Şey Çok Güzel Olacak)			Yes	Yes	Altan Çamlı
2001	Vizontele				Yes	Fikri
2004	G.O.R.A.			Yes	Yes	Arif Işık/Komutan Logar
2005	Organize İşler				Yes	Müslüm Duralmaz	Won Sadri Alışık Best Supporting Actor award[14]
2006	The Magician (Turkish: Hokkabaz)	Yes		Yes	Yes	İskender Tünaydın	Won BIIFF and Sadri Alışık Best Actor awards[15][16]
2007	Bee Movie				Yes	Barry B. Benson	Voice actor (Turkish dub)
2008	A.R.O.G	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Arif Işık/Komutan Logar
2010	Yahşi Batı		Yes	Yes	Yes	Aziz Vefa
	Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard				Yes	Arthur	Voice actor (Turkish dub)
	Zephyr (Turkish: Zefir)				Yes		Voice actor (special appearance). Belma Baş's first long movie, it was sponsored by Ministry of Culture and Tourism.[17]
	Hunting Season (Turkish: Av Mevsimi)				Yes	"Crazy" İdris	Cem Yılmaz and Şener Şen shared the leading roles. It was directed by Yavuz Turgul.[18] 4th Yeşilçam Awards: "Best Actor"[19]
2012	Magnificent Presence				Yes	Yusuf Antep[20]	Directed by Ferzan Özpetek, it was released in March 2012.[21]
2013	CM101MMXI FUNDAMENTALS		Yes	Yes	Yes		Theatrical release of Cem Yılmaz's latest stand-up show, CM101MMXI FUNDAMENTALS.
2014	The Water Diviner				Yes	Sergeant Jemal (Cemal)	First feature film directed by Russell Crowe[22]
	Coming Soon (Turkish: Pek Yakında)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Zafer Yıldız/Beşir	At the 20th Sadri Alışık Awards, he won the "Most Successful Actor" award in the musical/comedy category.[23]
2015	Ali Baba and the Seven Dwarfs (Turkish: Ali Baba ve Yedi Cüceler)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Ali Şenay/Boris Mancov
2016	İftarlık Gazoz				Yes	Cibar Kemal	The story takes place in the 1970s.[24]
	Zootopia				Yes	Nick Wilde[25]	Voice actor (Turkish dub)
2017	Deli Aşk		Yes		Yes	Erman Eratlı
2018	Arif V 216		Yes	Yes	Yes	Arif Işık	Sequel to G.O.R.A and A.R.O.G
2019	Karakomik Filmler	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Ayzek, Alpay	A cinematic release consisting of two separate movies, Kaçamak and 2 Arada.
2020	Karakomik Filmler 2	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Güven, Birol	A cinematic release consisting of two separate movies, Deli and Emanet.
2026	G.O.R.A. 4 G.O.R.A	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Arif Işık, Komutan Logar	Forth movie of the cinematic universe of G.O.R.A.

Recurring collaborators

Oyuncu	Everything's Gonna Be Great (1998)	G.O.R.A. (2004)	The Magician (2006)	A.R.O.G (2008)	Yahşi Batı (2010)	Coming Soon (2014)	Ali Baba and the Seven Dwarfs (2015)	Arif V 216 (2018)	Karakomik Filmler (2019)	Karakomik Filmler 2 (2020)
Mazhar Alanson						Y
Özkan Uğur
Ozan Güven
Özge Özberk
Zafer Algöz
Çağlar Çorumlu

Shows

Year	Title	Notes
1999	Milenyum	Stand up
1999	Bir Tat Bir Doku	Stand up
2001-2007	CMYLMZ	Stand up
2010	CMYLMZ Soru & Cevap	Stand up
2011-2013	CM101MMXI Fundamentals	Stand up[26]
2014	STANDartCY	Stand up[27]
2019-2021	CMYLMZ Diamond Elite Platinum Plus	Stand up
2024-present	CMXXIV	Stand up