Check Out Derya Celikkol’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Derya Celikkol.

Hi Derya, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I moved to New York from Istanbul in 2011 to go to NYU Tisch School of the Art’s Experimental Theatre Wing Acting Program. I began acting in film and theatre while I was in school and continued after graduation. My notable theatre credits include being a devising member of the Bated Breath Theatre Company’s Unmaking Toulouse-Lautrec and playing one of the lead roles of Adele de Toulouse-Lautrec, a (micro) History of Economics, danced at La Mama directed by Pascal Lambert, co-writing, co-directing and playing one of the three leads in the Aliens Make Thanksgiving Dinner at Rattlestick Theatre and Instructions to Decode at Dixon Place. Film credits include Fairytale of New York (with a wide theatrical release in Turkey), Intentions (USA Film Festival, Hollyshorts, Flickers’ Rhode Island FF), and Daria the Great (Audience Choice Award- Adirondack Film Festival and Best Actress Award at Lionshead FF).

I also wrote, directed, and produced two plays that I acted in BITE and Memory of a Smile. A year after graduating from NYU, I decided I wanted to do more in film and I did a cinematography program at NYFA where I wrote, directed, and shot two award-winning short films Chains of Freedom and Journey. While I was in the cinematography program I realized what I wanted to do in film was production design so I started crewing in the art department of student films and my career took off very fast since I loved the work I did and I was naturally good at it. I have designed five international feature films, many award-winning short films and I have worked with world-renowned companies on their commercials and ad campaigns as a designer. I love working in film and theatre and every aspect of visual storytelling. I continue to work as an actor and production designer as well as writing my own projects.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
My biggest struggle in my career has been my immigration status in the States. The fact that I am on a visa and I need to renew my artist visa every three years has been a constant reminder in my mind that has hindered my freedom in choosing work that I feel fully proud of and having the luxury of time to make intentional choices in my career. But I often choose to see this as something that gives me an extra fire to succeed and work harder than my American colleagues. Other than that, being a female in the film industry has been difficult at times with male colleagues not taking me seriously, not trusting my choices, and undermining me. In the beginning of my career, these interactions made me feel like I was an imposter who doesn’t deserve to have that job. But with time, I learned to take these moments of conflict as chances to prove myself and diminish these people’s doubts with my kind, cooperative attitude and brilliant results in my work.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
In my acting work, I specialize in movement and deep character work. I studied many different acting techniques from Meisner to Grotowski, and I have found my own way of blending physical theater work into deep character and story analysis. When I act, I can be fully in the moment with my scene partners and have all my analytical work inform my moment to moment impulsive choices in scenes. I also observe people a lot in my daily life. If I spend a lot of time with someone with an accent, I start to unintentionally sound like them. It’s like my mind is always saving mannerisms, accents, and different characteristics of people for future acting work. With all these elements coming together, I feel like I am a very unique performer who takes on characters fully with authentic idiosyncrasies while staying fresh in the moment during interactions with scene partners.

Coming from a cinematography background, my design work is always in harmony with the vision of the DP of the project, and this results in both our works making each other shine. Thanks to my training at the Experimental Theatre Wing, I have become very comfortable with collaborating with others and I carry this collaborative energy into my talks with the DP and directors of films I work on as well as my communication with my art department crew. Over my years of work experience, I have become great at understanding what directors want and catering to their vision as well as providing my own artistic input and not letting my ego get in the way if my ideas aren’t accepted. I specialize in period and fantastical set design. I have designed films that take place in the 20s, 60s, 90s, and the future. I have built a space pod, helped create a set with giant human-eating flowers and dreamscape sets. My unique vision, knowledge of cinematography, and ease of collaboration are things that set me apart from others.

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
With the attention span of the people getting shorter and shorter, I see a rise in short films. I have been experiencing more and more difficulty watching longer, more situational films, which can be called “slow” and I have been hearing the same thing from friends and colleagues. This is making me sad and I am working on getting my attention span back to the way it was but I think that for the majority of the population, the shortening of the attention span is something that can’t be changed. In my experience, short films have mostly been a genre that only interests filmmakers but over the last few years, I have been seeing a rise of short films in streaming services. This is a great thing for filmmakers who specialize in short films which is something difficult to master in its own way.

Other than that, I see a rise in female-driven stories being funded more after the success of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. There has been a snail-paced progress in this over the years thanks to the leadership of many incredible artists shining light on the issue like Geena Davis and I’m hoping that the immense success of Barbie is proof that audiences are craving female-driven storylines.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.deryacelikkol.com
• Instagram: @celderikkolya

Image Credits
Ambe J. Williams, Hany Osman