Arts & Theatre · Theatre
Bestemsu Özdemir
6 dates on sale
On tour
Every date the ticketer lists, worldwide · venue time
TicketsArts & Theatre · TRRuh SalatasıÇorlu Ünal Baysan Kültür Merkezi · TekirdağTicketsArts & Theatre · TRRuh SalatasıHasan Polatkan Kültür Merkezi · EskişehirTicketsArts & Theatre · TRRuh SalatasıKadıköy Eğitim Sahnesi · İstanbulTicketsArts & Theatre · TRRuh SalatasıBostanlı Karşıyaka Theatre · İzmirTicketsArts & Theatre · TRRuh SalatasıMall of İstanbul MOİ Sahne · İstanbulTicketsThe profile · researched 19 October 2026
Bestemsu Özdemir, back on stage three months after giving birth
A decade of Turkish series work and one English-language film credit behind her, the Istanbul-born actress now spends her evenings in a two-act farce she also dressed — and which has been touring since April 2026.
A fashion degree, then a TRT drama
Bestemsu Özdemir was born in Istanbul on 20 April 1992 and trained as a designer rather than a performer, taking a fashion design degree at Istanbul Technical University. That training is not a footnote: when she joined the comedy she is currently performing, she took the costume credit alongside her acting role, and one listing for the production also names her for the set.
Her screen career began in 2012, and it began at volume. Three series arrived in the same year — İstanbul Hatırası, in which she played Sultan across 20 episodes, the 21-episode Araf Zamanı, and Sakarya Fırat on TRT 1, where she appeared as Melike Derbent for 38 episodes running into 2013. For an actress with no conservatoire background, it amounted to a working apprenticeship conducted in public, at the pace Turkish television demands.
The series decade
The role that widened her audience was Nilüfer Denizer in Kara Para Aşk, a part that ran to 54 episodes across 2014 and 2015 — still the longest single stretch of her career. A one-episode turn as Sevgi Tinar in Analar ve Anneler followed in 2015, then the two runs that consolidated her as a recognisable lead-adjacent name: Beliz Bilen in Meryem over 30 episodes in 2017 and 2018, and Zeynep Gerginoğlu in the 23-episode Ege'nin Hamsisi in 2018.
After that the engagements shortened, which in the Turkish system usually reflects the lifespan of the show rather than the actress. Güvercin gave her nine episodes as İpek in 2020; Akrep eight as Selma and İkimizin Sırrı ten as Ece Kaya, both in 2021. Gecenin Ucunda in 2022 was the last long one, 26 episodes as Serra Pekdemir. Her most recent listed series credit is Yasemin in Kirli Sepeti in 2023.
Features, and one credit in English
The film work has run in parallel and leaned comic. She played the double role of Rosa and Saadet in Tabula Rosa in 2015, Defne in Biz Size Döneriz and Candan in Dünyanın En Güzel Kokusu 2 in 2017, and Fulya in Baba Nerdesin Kayboldum in 2018. Milyonda Bir, in which she appeared as Rüya, came in 2021, followed by Müjdemi İsterim in 2022.
2023 produced two credits that sit oddly together and say something useful about where her career had got to: Şebnem in the Turkish thriller Nefes: Yer Eksi İki, and Vivienne in the English-language action comedy Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre — her only credit to date in an international studio production, and the one that put her name on English-language film databases rather than Turkish ones.
Türbülans, and learning the stage
Her route into theatre was Türbülans, a two-act comedy directed by Somer Karvan that opened on 27 October 2020 at Kartal Sanat Tiyatrosu in Istanbul. The premise is old-fashioned French farce: Bernard, a man set against marriage, contrives to be engaged simultaneously to three flight attendants from three different airlines and nationalities, and the play works through the consequences of the lying. Özdemir played Janet, one of the three.
Türbülans is still a going concern but she has left it; theatre listings now place her among the former cast, with Aylin Kabasakal, Göktuğ Derici, Ece İrtem, Ceyda Tepeliler and Alara Bozbey carrying it on, and no performance dates currently posted. One connection survived the move. Giray Mert Özdenoğlu, who was in the Türbülans company with her, is both a cast member and a producer on the show she is in now.
Ruh Salatası
Ruh Salatası — roughly, Soul Salad — opened on 2 April 2026 at the Atlas cinema in Beyoğlu. It is written and directed by İrfan Kangı and runs two acts at about two hours. The set-up is a mountain house: a mafia boss called Tayyar and his companion Asuman go there to lie low, only to find that Murat and a white-collar professional, Derya, have rented the same property. A mysterious cassette tape then sends the characters swapping bodies and identities for a night, and Tayyar's enemies arrive to finish the job. Özdemir plays in a company of five with Ferit Aktuğ, Zeynep Beşerler, Mete Deran and Özdenoğlu.
The first notice, published in Kulis Online on 3 April 2026, called it a storm of absurd situations and eccentric characters, praised the production values, and recommended it — while noting that the women in the cast could sharpen the transitions between their swapped characters, something the reviewer, Hande Yöremen Gür, expected to tighten as the run bedded in. Audience scoring has been warmer: 4.6 out of 5 across 42 ratings on one of the main Turkish ticketing platforms.
Where she stands, October 2026
The last fourteen months have been busy away from the work. Özdemir married the former basketball player Ersin Görkem on 26 August 2025 at Küçük Boncuklu Koyu near Fethiye, and their son Sarp Marco was born on 11 January 2026, announced publicly on 16 January. By late March she was back in rehearsal. An interview published on 29 March 2026 has her taking the baby in with her to Ruh Salatası rehearsals and refusing the convention of keeping him out of sight: she said she would not hide her child from cameras, and that children should grow up around working parents.
She held that line on opening night. Coverage dated 4 April 2026 reported her bringing her then twelve-week-old son to the premiere at the Atlas, with Demet Akbağ, in the audience, holding the baby and worrying aloud that he was dressed too lightly for the weather — Özdemir's reply being that babies do not get cold, that her doctor backed her, and that she had had to argue the point with everyone including her own mother. Her line on why the baby was there at all was blunter: she did not give birth for someone else to raise him. No new series has been announced; for the moment the work is the play and the tour.
The show, now
The current show is Ruh Salatası, a two-act comedy of about two hours with no support act and no interval beyond the single break — the shape is a straight farce, played by a company of five on one mountain-house set, with the body-swap device driving a steady escalation from the arrival of the cassette tape to the arrival of the mafia boss's enemies. Özdemir works as part of the ensemble rather than as a billed solo draw, sharing the stage with Ferit Aktuğ, Zeynep Beşerler, Mete Deran and Giray Mert Özdenoğlu, and she has her name on the costumes as well. Since opening at the Atlas in Beyoğlu on 2 April 2026 the production has been touring widely, with dates listed in Istanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Sakarya, Eskişehir, Düzce and Tekirdağ; confirmed autumn dates include Hasan Polatkan Kültür Merkezi in Eskişehir on 13 November 2026 at 20:00 and Bostanlı Suat Taşer Tiyatrosu in İzmir on 24 November 2026 at 20:30. Tickets run from roughly ₺987 to ₺1,644 depending on city and date — from ₺1,110 at the İzmir house, from ₺1,332 in Eskişehir. The one published review, from April, rated the staging highly while flagging that the character switches needed more definition; ticket-platform scoring from audiences sits at 4.6 out of 5 across 42 ratings, which is where this kind of broad comedy usually lands when it is working.
Researched from en.wikipedia.org · tiyatrolar.com.tr · tiyatrolar.com.tr · biletinial.com · kulisonline.com · hurriyet.com.tr · sabah.com.tr · sabah.com.tr