Ali Pınar is an actor, director, producer, singer and radio host born in Istanbul. Alongside directing films and operas, he acts in feature films, television series and theatre productions, performs in concerts, and produces and presents radio programmes.
During his primary and secondary schooling in Brussels, he studied piano and solfège at the Waterloo Music Academy for seven years. After returning to Türkiye, he continued his secondary education at Galatasaray High School. With a scholarship from Belgium, he completed his undergraduate studies in Film and Television at Istanbul Bilgi University. He subsequently earned a master’s degree in Theatre at Haliç University Conservatory and a PhD in Cinema and Media Studies at Bahçeşehir University. Alongside his academic studies, he trained for three years with State Artist Ayhan Baran in the Part-Time Opera Department of Mimar Sinan University State Conservatory. He studied acting with Şahika Tekand (Studio Players) and Ayla Algan (Ekol Drama). He also served as director Mehmet Ulusoy’s assistant at the Turkish State Theatres for three years while receiving private acting training from him. In addition, he attended Viola Spolin workshops led by Kate Hendrickson, Jason Hale and Ege Maltepe.
Since 1995, Pınar has appeared in numerous feature films, television series, commercials and theatre productions. Television series in which he has appeared in recent years have been broadcast in more than 180 countries. These include the Argentine–Chilean–Turkish co-production Aşk ve Gurur and the Russian production Nar Rengi, in both of which he played leading roles. In 2020, he portrayed Arsalan, a Syrian journalist fleeing war, in the independent US–Afghan co-production I Am You. The film was submitted for consideration for both the Academy Awards (Oscars) and the Golden Globes.
Having hosted numerous events, Pınar also presented Sinepolitik, a television programme broadcast on TRT Haber. The Battle of Prague, which he narrated, was performed at the Printemps Baroque du Sablon Festival in Brussels and at the United Nations in New York. He also narrated Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf with the Tekfen Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Darrell Ang, at TİM Show Center.
Since 2015, he has performed with TangoNEVA at major concert halls in Istanbul and at festivals and events throughout Türkiye. In these cabaret-style concerts, he sings tango songs in seven languages, accompanied by visual projections and dance. Expanding his tango work to the international stage, he has also performed with leading Argentine ensembles Romantica Milonguera and Tango Bardo, as well as the Vienna-based ensemble Band-O-Neon.
He began his stage directing career in 1995 with chamber opera productions by Istanbul Barok, an ensemble he co-founded and helped lead. Between 1995 and 1999, he worked as an assistant director and stage manager on operas and operettas staged by the then Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s Cemal Reşit Rey Opera. From 2001 to 2004, he worked as an assistant director at the Turkish State Theatres, taking part in performances in Ankara and tours to Cyprus, France and Russia. Benerci Kendini Niçin Öldürdü?, on which he served as assistant director, won four Afife Jale Theatre Awards. In 2004, he directed G. F. Handel’s Deidamia at the Ankara State Opera and Ballet. This was the first Handel opera to be staged in Türkiye.
He began working in the film industry in 1995, undertaking various technical roles on films and television series by prominent directors of Turkish cinema’s Yeşilçam era, including Halit Refiğ, Ömer Kavur and Tunç Başaran. He later worked as a production assistant on international art-house films at Alfa Film and as an assistant director on various international productions. In 2002, he founded Corpora Productions, a film production and concert organisation company. Through the company, he has produced or directed nearly 50 feature films, documentaries and commercials, alongside a wide range of audiovisual content. These include Uygur Karızları, a documentary filmed in China, the United Kingdom, Austria, Luxembourg and Türkiye in 2009. The film was the first in the world to explore the 2,500-year-old underground irrigation system known as “karız”. It was made with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Türkiye and the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China.
Pınar began his radio career at Radyo Kozmos in 2001. In 2009, he produced and presented Aksak on TRT Radyo 3, a station he had listened to since his middle school years. He has produced and presented Alla Turca since 2004, now on Apaçık Radyo, and Alafranga on Borusan Klasik, part of the Karnaval radio network, since 2018. Alla Turca won the Best Radio/TV Programme of the Year award at the 2013 Donizetti Classical Music Awards.
Through Corpora Productions, he has organised classical, jazz and Turkish music concerts featuring renowned artists for approximately 20 years. These events have taken place at venues including Hagia Irene, Caddebostan Cultural Centre, Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall, Süreyya Opera House, Tophane-i Amire, Zorlu PSM and the Presidential Symphony Orchestra’s concert halls in Ankara, as well as archaeological sites such as Phaselis in Antalya, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus in Bodrum and the ancient city of Sardis in Manisa. In Europe, he has organised concerts at various venues and festivals, including Bozar (Centre for Fine Arts) in Brussels and the Tirana Jazz Festival.
Also active in education, Pınar taught screenwriting, production and directing at Galatasaray İTM between 2009 and 2013 and gave seminars at the Yapı Kredi Cultural Centre. He translated librettos for the Turkish State Opera and Ballet and plays for the Turkish State Theatres. His book 100. Doğum Yılında Cemal Reşit Rey (Cemal Reşit Rey on the Centenary of His Birth) was published by Pan Publishing in 2015. He has written film criticism for the newspaper Dünya and interviewed artists for the newspaper Hürriyet and the music magazine Andante.
Between 2012 and 2013, he helped establish ACT World TV, an international arts and culture television channel, and served as its content consultant. He continues to provide communications and arts consultancy to various institutions and organisations.