Serhan Onat was born on May 27, 1994 in Izmit. Turkish TV series, cinema and theater actor.
Name: Serhan Onat
Date of Birth: May 27, 1994
Birthplace: Izmit
Height: 1.83 m.
Weight: 79 kilos
Sign: Gemini
Eyes: blue
Siblings: Has an older sister
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/serhanonat
Pets: He has a cat.
Family: He was born and raised in Izmit. His father is an engineer. He worked abroad for many years. “When I received an offer from Pirelli’s new factory to be opened in China when I was in secondary school, we went to China with him. I lasted eight months. Then I returned to Turkey with my sister. My parents never left us alone. I have been living in Istanbul since my last year of high school. But I was born and raised in Izmit. My closest friends still live there. So are my mom and dad. I have an older sister, he also lives in Dublin. I am from Kocaelispor and I try to support them as much as I can. I love it. Another place for me is Izmit. When I was little, my family used to go to theater acts and they would take me with them, maybe they were going for themselves, so they weren’t aware of what they were doing, but I was always very impressed. There are games that I still cannot forget, that I remember like it was yesterday. I was always curious about the real-life situations of the actors and I wanted to go backstage, I was attracted to the invisible side of the business, I would look at the backstage door for a long time between games. But we traveled a lot because of my father’s job, and often pilots would take me to places or people I loved. Maybe that’s why I wanted to be a pilot with great passion for many years, of course, on the other hand, I was the source of joy, energetic, restless, constantly dreaming of the child of the house. Realizing this, my mother said one day that he wanted to enter the theater where I was sitting in the audience and enroll me in the course. I initially refused because of my love of piloting, but later on, at the insistence of the exam jury and my mother, I started the course.”
Childhood years: At the age of 8, he decided to become an actor with the act “Üç Kuruşluk Opera”, which he watched in city theaters. For this reason, he spent his high school years studying in Istanbul and preparing for the conservatory exams. “A musical I watched in China changed my life. I made up my mind to start dancing and become a musical actor on the occasion of that act. I studied dance with scholarship at Tan Sağtürk Academy and worked as Sağtürk’s assistant. I can’t dance anymore because of my knee injury. Then I won the theater department at the conservatory. I wanted to act since I was a kid. I can say that I started this path with the encouragement of my family. In this sense, I cannot repay my family. When I was a child, they enrolled me in the Izmit Art Center. We worked there for many years with my dear teacher Fatih Sevdi. He is still my very close friend. He is the Deputy General Artistic Director of Kocaeli City Theaters at the moment. I’ve learned a lot from him. I started to think about acting after I was trained professionally at Izmit Art Center. I couldn’t help myself there, and at the age of 12-13 I said, ‘Acting will be my profession’. What I dreamed of back then, I am living it now.
Education life: After completing his primary and secondary education in Izmit, he spent the last years of his high school life in Istanbul to study dance and theater. He won the Anadolu University State Conservatory Theater Department in 2012.
The first step into acting: The character of “Şehzade Murad”, which he portrayed in the TV series “Muhteşem Yüzyıl”, started his television adventure in 2014.
Which project did it shine with? He attracted attention with the character of “Uzay” he acted in the TV series “Bodrum Masalı”.
Personality traits: Ambitious, emotional, helpful. “I’m just a little troubled with anger management. I can shine fast and raise my voice, but my anger is like a fire in the hay. I’ll make up for it right away. I am emotional. I am ambitious. I plan my life, that’s how I live it. My energy is very high. I don’t have middle lines when I’m laughing, having fun, or being sad. Being warm, caring, helpful and living on my own are among my favorite features. However, I am a Gemini and I have all the features of it; I’m unstable, I can wipe it out right away. I’m either very calm and patient or very impulsive. I have no middle point.
Hobby: He has a passion for the sea and skiing, and as a hobby he is sailing boat captain. “My passion for the sea was inherited from my father. We used to sail or fish from a young age. I have a passion for speed. I love the sound that cuts off as soon as I get away from the land and the slight shaking. I cannot imagine a life apart from the sea. In my spare time, I am either at sea or going to the mountains, in winter I go skiing. I try to travel as much as I can.
Mindset: “I came out of Izmit in a very loving environment and made very good friendships. But it was difficult to keep up with Istanbul. This environment is a strange one; I’ve met very selfish people. A person who is good one day may not look at his face the next day, it feels very strange. During this process, my biggest regrets were the relationships and friendships I built. Most of the time I was wrong and I was sad. That’s why the biggest thing this market has taught me is to be a little distant, not to be too close to some people. There have been many things I wanted so far, and I want the rest to happen immediately. I’m trying to rein in this. Because it can affect me negatively.”
First feature film: Mehmet Ada Öztekin / 7. Koğuştaki Mucize
The way he looks at love: “Love is like jumping off an endless cliff, when I fall in love, I’m like an inflated balloon. I realize that I am in love when I become a man who wanders around like he carries a universe inside him, laughing and laughing, and becomes bored when I first think of Ümit Yaşar Oğuzcan’s poem Desperation. I haven’t been in a long-term relationship. I think the most important thing in a relationship is love. Love takes precedence over love.”
His outlook on life: He is a person with high vitality, travels a lot, is a nature lover and mature for his age. “If I look at my life in general, I think that coming to Istanbul when I was in high school had a big impact on my maturity. The process of being alone in a house in Istanbul at a young age and getting to the conservatory by going back and forth between rehearsal and home without getting involved in anything bad is a process that makes him mature. I don’t know if my awareness would have been this high and I would have been able to express myself so well if it weren’t for my dedication to my profession.”
Perspective on business life: While preparing for the role, he internalizes the character he will act, he does not work in front of the mirror. “After years of training and many things learned, the acter creates his own technique, but this is not always enough. It takes a lot of work and exercise, so my preparation for each role is different, but I can say that I try to capture his soul by making physiological and psychological analysis first. I’ve never worked in front of a mirror because I’m more concerned with what I feel inside, not with my outward appearance. I think the bad character is also sexy. The illegal and the forbidden attract people. The reason why bad characters are loved so much is that they show the side of the audience that they are curious about and sometimes they want to be but they can’t be. Frankly, I don’t add anything from my own life, from Serhan, while acting. When I have to be sad, I definitely don’t think about my own life.”
Career plan: He wants to act in festival films and more projects in cinema. “When I entered the industry, I wanted to be popular and make money, but I also want to do something outside of television. Continuing the theater or taking part in festival films is one of them. Of course, I wouldn’t say no to a good blockbuster, but when we shoot a series, we do what the total wants. Classic stories, intrigues, etc. On top of that, when we say RTÜK applications, the work has no artistic value anyway. I want a festival film because I want to compete in festivals around the world, win nominations, and I also want to take part in films with high artistic value, even cult ones, and to be a part of a sought-after film that is watched even years from now.”
Future Dream: He does not have a clear dream and plan regarding acting. “Something has always happened to me, and my dreams have come true even when I least expected them. I am left to time; I am young and very busy educating myself. My biggest dream; There are films that change my perspective on life, broaden my horizons, and admire, by making such films and influencing a person living on the other side of the world with the character I act and giving him something. With a movie I act well, I can be a guest in everyone’s home from Asia to Africa to Europe and make them feel something, then I guess I will be the happiest person in the world. And of course, the sound of applause is never missing from my ears, that is, always staying on stage.”
Role model: I don’t take any actors as an example. “I don’t think there is such an acting technique either. I read a lot of acts just to keep the character alive.”
Concerns: There are many issues in life that he worries about. “If we talk in general; If many people starve or freeze to death every day, if terrorism is at the center of our lives, if our limited time on earth is getting more painful day by day, then you have a lot to worry about. If I speak professionally; It is not possible for a conservatory student living in Turkey to look to the future with hope when theaters are being closed and the working conditions of the cinema industry are clear. If I had to give an example; While I was studying, I had to work at the same time. Because from the moment you start school, you start to fear ‘what will I do in the future’. I also participated in the shooting of TV series since the first grade. When an opportunity arose somewhere, I had to freeze my school. But in general, all my graduates work as waitresses in Moda. This somehow gets on my nerves.”
Attractiveness criterion in women: He finds women who stand strong and have their feet on the ground attractive. The first thing I’m interested in in a woman is her smile and her looks. Because smiling is something that requires sincerity and how one smiles is very important, I think it is the thing that suits people the most. I think I get honesty and mutual trust from the looks, words are not needed. I always remember the looks, I feel the love there.”
Who does he admire? Robert De Niro and Bülent Emin Yarar are the actors he wants to act with each other. He also wants to appear in the films of Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Fatih Akın and Derviş Zaim.
Does he follow fashion? He is very attentive to my clothes and therefore he follows fashion. “There are fashion designers whose fashion shows I have been going to for years without missing Fashion Week. As someone who enjoys aesthetics and art so much, it seems impossible for me to stay away from fashion. My favorite in the world in this field is Alexander Mcqueen. Niyazi Erdogan and Benan Bal from Turkey. I love to wear black and leather. Apart from that, blue tones and jean products manage to attract me. Accessories that I can’t give up, that I’m obsessed with, sunglasses and things with memories. I can’t bear to wear things that have a memory, and I’m very afraid that something will happen. Pieces like this stay with me on my special days and give me strength; I have a t-shirt and a bracelet that I can count in this sense. There is also something I have just realized in myself, I compare my shoes with the countries I have visited; I have traveled to 6 countries with these shoes, I think of things like 5 countries with this shoe, I think that the things I wear share their experiences and memories with me.”
Which movie was he influenced by: He was influenced by the movie ‘Blockade’. “I wouldn’t say it’s the best movie of all time, but Waltz with Bashir is definitely one of my favourites. It describes the process of Israel’s entry into Lebanon. ‘Ve Sen Aydınlatırsın Geceyi’ is one of my favorite Turkish films.”
What does he do at home? He’s good with the kitchen, he cooks well. “I can’t get enough of her making and eating seafood. Along with the fish I choose according to the season, shrimp casserole and oven halva with dried fruit and orange is my favorite dinner menu, and of course, like every Turkish man, I also love to barbecue. If I’m in a good mood, I give a small clarinet or saxophone recital in the evening, depending on our mood, I don’t act both at the same night. There is either jazz or nostalgic Turkish songs.”
TV series he follow: Netflix series, especially Narcos.
The novel that touched and left a mark on his life: “I can say Oğuz Atay’s ‘Tutunamayanlar’ and Yuval Noah Harari’s ‘Sapiens’ that I read recently. Was very good.
Dream city: All cities in South America. “However, I do not want to leave Izmit and Istanbul.
An unknown talent: “I have a very good memory and I am a good gourmet. I am asked for the best restaurants in the places I know.”
A talent he wanted to have: He wanted to be able to rhythm very well.
Favorite travel route: Sailing from Karaköy on a big gulet, visiting the Aegean and Mediterranean coves, enjoying the food and wine, and then staying in the ocean for months, that is, enjoying the sea life to the fullest with all the risks, and going to South America to the Chilean cape and from there to the plane. I say let’s get on and come back to Istanbul.
TV SERIES
2014- Muhteşem Yüzyıl / Şehzade Murad
2015 /2016- Mayıs Kraliçesi / Bora
2016 – Bodrum Masalı / Uzay
2017 – Meryem/ Berk Bilen
2019 – Kuruluş: Osman / Aybars
2021 – Akıncı / Yağız
CINEMA MOVIES
2019- 7. Koğuştaki Mucize / Meydancı Selim
THEATER GAMES
2018- Closer / Actor
2017- Uyarca / Actor