Neslihan Arol

Neslihan is a Berlin-based director and actor from Istanbul. During her acting training (2009-2012) at The Studio Players in Istanbul, she performed with Tiyatro Oyunbaz. In 2013, she received her MA in Film and Drama from Kadir Has University with a practice-based master's thesis on clowning from a feminist perspective. For her PhD at the Faculty of Performing Arts at UdK Berlin, she explored the intersections of feminism and comedy through clowning, stand-up comedy and Meddahlık (a storytelling tradition from Turkey). She also brought her research findings onto the stage as performances at international events in Vienna, Helsinki, Toronto, Pennsylvania, Stuttgart and Izmir. 
Her last production as a director, "Karagörlz", is the result of her artistic research project at the Graduate School of the UdK Berlin (2019-2021). In 2023, she received a research grant from the Fonds Darstellende Künste for the development of her new project, which is a meddah performance in Turkish for an exclusively female* audience. As an active member of "gastkollektiv" and "Clowns without Borders", she has developed collective performances for several years and continues to act in plays of "Bühne für Menschenrechte". She also provides dramaturgical expertise to independent theater groups. Moreover, she performs one of the main roles in the new German-Turkish production "Afet & Diana", which celebrated its German premiere at the 15th Stuttgart European Theater Meeting SETT 2023 and its Turkish premiere at the 4th International Bergama Theater Festival. In 2023, her first debut film as a leading actor was included in the national feature film competition at the 30th Adana International Film Festival and received a prize for directing. Since June 2023, she has also been leading the audience discussion format "Çay 'n' Talk" at HAU Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin.