Ayhan Hulagu

Ayhan Hulagu is a United States-based actor. He founded the theater group called Hayal Perdesi while continuing his education in Turkey. He later launched the PAU Theatre Festival; an annual showcase performed by a group of teenagers and college students with a 17-year successful run.

After obtaining his college degree, he joined the Sahika Tekand Studio Players in Istanbul, an established theater group, to further advance his acting skills, and continued his career as a stage artist.

Hulagu developed an interest in Anatolian theatre and started performing professionally soon after completing a course in shadow plays offered jointly by the Turkish Ministry of arts and culture and the International Puppetry Association (UNIMA) in Istanbul, in 2011. 

Hulagu brought his artistic experience to the U.S. where he staged many plays across America. He founded the Karagoz Theatre Company in the U.S. in 2017. His shows debuted in Washington, D.C., and were played in Miami, California, Texas, and New York City. As part of his projects in the U.S., Hulagu organized masterclass workshops and exhibitions to win new fans and audiences for a Turkish Theatre at Harvard University, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Cornell, University of UC Berkeley, etc. 

After a successful run of Turkish plays, he established himself as a promising young artist, offering something authentic and traditional to the American audience with exhibited passion. 

Hulagu received invitations from a number of organizations to perform; Hollywood Fringe Festival, National Puppet Festival, Washington DC Culture Festival, International Puppet Fringe NYC, Neopolis International Theatre Festival, and La MaMa Puppet S., to name a few. He frequently receives such invitations from similar organizations in the U.S, Africa, and Europe.

Hulagu adapted Shakespeare’s Hamlet which was nominated for best Adaptations & Modernizations play in New York City, Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote for the first time to traditional Turkish theatre, and did many projects with American companies. Hulagu was granted an ‘extraordinary ability artist’ status to the US for bringing the traditional Turkish theatre art form to the United States like who has an Oscar, Nobel, etc. He made history as the first artist to introduce traditional Anatolian theatre —in its nearly 700 years of history– to Broadway.

He was a board member at Puppeteers of America which has produced over 160 national and regional festivals to celebrate and share the art of puppetry in the United States of America. 

Official website: http://www.ayhanhulagu.com