Biography
Zafer Ergin was born on 30 August 1942 in Ankara. He graduated in art history from the Faculty of Language, History and Geography at Ankara University, trained at the Deneme Sahnesi and joined the State Theatres as an actor in 1961. He played at the Ankara State Theatre until 1983, then moved to the Istanbul State Theatre, where he was artistic director from 1988 to 1990. He left the institution in 2005.
For decades he was also known as a voice actor, dubbing foreign series and films on TRT and voicing stars such as Cüneyt Arkın, Tarık Akan and Orhan Gencebay. On screen he played Mehmet Karahanlı in Kurtlar Vadisi (2003 to 2005), and since 2006 Rıza Soylu, “Rıza Baba”, the police chief in Kanal D‘s Arka Sokaklar.
Arka Sokaklar ran for 20 seasons and 751 episodes before D Media and Kanal D decided in July 2026 not to continue it. Ergin has been married to Binnaz Ergin since 1986 and has a daughter, Esra.
