Ata Demirer

Ali Ata Demirer (born 6 July 1972) is a Turkish filmmaker, stand-up comedian, actor, and musician. He is known for his live comedy sketches "Korsan TV" as well as for writing and starring in a string of Turkish box-office hits including Eyyvah Eyvah, Berlin Kaplanı, Neredesin Firuze and the hit sitcom series Avrupa Yakası. He is best known for his imitation and accent ability, and his stand-up style resembles the storyteller Meddah which was lost in the new generation.

Demirer demonstrated a talent for singing and music at an early age and studied at Bursa Boys' High School before transferring in his final year and graduating with honours from Çelebi Mehmet High School. After leaving school he found work, with the help of his brothers, as a night club pianist. In 1991, he moved to Istanbul after being accepted on the Turkish music department of the State Conservatory of Istanbul Technical University, and during his studies he started performing stand-up in bars. In 1998 he impressed the organisers at Leman Kültür with recordings of his earlier shows and they staged his show Tek Kişilik Dev Kadro, which consisted mostly of impersonations of Turkish celebrities such as actor Kadir İnanır and singers Bülent Ersoy and Emrah. After more than 1000 performances the show transferred to television with Star TV's 42-episode run of Korsan TV (2001), written, produced and presented by Demirer.

His greatest success came with a three-season run from 2004 to 2006 as the loveable Volkan in the popular Atv sitcom Avrupa Yakası, which also led to his first cinematic lead role as Güngör in Neco Çelik's Kısık Ateşte 15 Dakika (2006). In April 2007, he started a stand-up tour called Ata Demirer Show which he took around Turkey and to the Netherlands, Germany and France. He later wrote and co-starred with Demet Akbağ in Hakan Algül's Eyyvah Eyvah (2010) and Eyyvah Eyvah 2 (2011), which were the highest-grossing Turkish films of their respective years, while his film Berlin Kaplanı (2012) also debuted at number one in the weekly Turkish box office.