Üner started her career in the Sociology Department of Koç University in 1999 as an intern. During the 2003 Iraq War she worked as a reporter for NTV News Center. From 2002 to 2006, she was involved in reporting on diplomatic and economic news for NTV. She interviewed and reported on a number of politicians and statesmen, including Iran and Israel parliament speakers, Iran interior minister, Czech Republic's president, US Department of Defense adviser Richard Perle, Bill Clinton's adviser Richard Holbrooke, US Ambassadors to Turkey, as well as British, Russian, French and German ministers of state. Besides politics, she made news from the Formula 1 races in Bahrain. She was awarded a plaque for her contribution as a journalist to the Formula 1 Grand Prix held in Istanbul in August 2005. In early 2006, she left NTV and began working as a reporter for Star TV for a short period. In May 2006, she joined CNN Türk's sports department and pretsented sports news on weekends. In March 2007, together with Orkun Yazgan she began presenting the program Yeni Gün on CNN Türk.^[2] In August 2009, she started working for Habertürk TV. In 2010, she presented the discussion program Olduğu Gibi and the next year she was left in charge of the news program Akşam Raporu. From 2012 to 2017, she presented the discussion program Enine Boyuna on Habertürk TV. On 6 January 2014, she became the main news bulletin presenter on Show TV, a position she held until 5 June 2015 when she was replaced by Jülide Ateş. After Ateş's resignation from her position, Üner returned to her previous position on Show TV on 8 January 2018.^[3]

After deciding he wants to pursue career on stage, he founded "Tiyatro Stüdyosu" (Theatre Studio) with his wife Zuhal Olcay and Ahmet Levendoğlu in 1990. After starring in various plays for six years, he had to return to screen in 1996 because of a fire that has destroyed the theater. He and his wife starred in television and movies to raise money to found another theater. During this era, he starred in Eyvah Kızım Büyüdü (Oh My, My Daughter Has Grown), starting his second era in television. After years of work, he and his wife managed to start a second theater, called "Oyun Atölyesi" (Play Workshop).

His most famous role however came after he started his second theater. He landed a role in Tatlı Hayat, a remake of The Jeffersons. He played the role of İhsan Yıldırım, an angry, racist and foul-mouthed, yet lovable dry cleaner. He was accompanied by legendary actress Türkan Şoray, who played his wife, Asuman Dabak playing the witty cleaner, Neco playing the Greek neighbor (The enmity between Greeks and Turks were put instead of the Black-White one in the original) and Çolpan İlhan playing Neco's wife. He and the show's breakthrough character İrfan (played by Celal Kadri Kınoğlu) are regarded as the best characters in Turkish TV history. He divorced Zuhal Olcay in 2004 and began a relationship with Aşkın Nur Yengi, a famous Turkish singer. They married in 2006 and had a girl.

After Tatlı Hayat, he starred in Neredesin Firuze (Where Are You Firuze?), Hırsız Var (Thief!) and Hacivat Karagöz Neden Öldürüldü? (Why Were Hacivat&Karagöz Murdered?). His most recent role in Polis (Police) however, is his most critically acclaimed role after Tatlı Hayat. His portrayal of the troubled police legend Musa Rami has gained critical acclaim from both critics and viewers, who thought the movie was too experimental. Bilginer, however, has said that he will work in all of Onur Ünlü's (screenwriter and director of Polis) movies, even as an extra if required.

Bilginer played the role of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in an İş Bank commercial, which first aired on 10 November 2007 during the 69th commemorations of Atatürk's death.

Bilginer co-starred in the 2009 American thriller The International as Ahmet Sunay, a Turkish high-tech missile guidance system dealer. He was accompanied by Clive Owen and Naomi Watts in this movie.

Bilginer plays Aydin, an imposing grey-haired former actor, in Winter Sleep, which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014.

Bilginer played Dr. Ranbir Sartain, the new psychiatrist of Michael Myers, in the slasher sequel Halloween.

Personal life

Metin Erksan gained success with films depicting the problems of people from the countryside he adopted from the literature. Susuz Yaz won the Golden Bear Award in Berlin, Germany. Yılanların Öcü (1962) was awarded in 1966 at the Carthage Film Festival in Tunisia. He was named "Best Director" with his film Kuyu (1968) at the first edition of International Adana Golden Boll Film Festival. Along with renowned film director Halit Refiğ, he was credited as the representative of the national cinema in Turkey.^[1]

From 1970 on, he directed films aimed for commercial success. In 1974-1975, he filmed five Turkish stories (Hanende Melek by Sabahattin Ali, Geçmiş Zaman Elbiseleri by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, Bir İntihar by Samet Ağaoğlu, Müthiş Bir Tren by Sait Faik Abasıyanık and Sazlık by Hulusi Koray) as short films for television.^[1] His 1977 film The Angel of Vengeance – The Female Hamlet was entered into the 10th Moscow International Film Festival.^[2] His 1974 horror movie Şeytan is known as the "Turkish Exorcist" due to the movies' similar plots.

He directed 42 films, 2 of which he produced himself; and he wrote the scripts of 29 films. He also starred in the 1998 film Alim Hoca as the title character.

He died on 4 August 2012 at the age of 83 in a hospital in Bakırköy, Istanbul, having been hospitalized ten days earlier with kidney failure.^[1]

”Before entering cinema a film set arrived to our neighborhood. They were going to film a set of the movie in our neighborhood. When I saw the leading role actress I thought to myself ‘what a beautiful woman’. That woman was Muhterem Nur. As I was looking dumbfounded a man approached me and asked ‘Do you want to act in the movies too?’. I was scared and ran home immediately. I learned later on that, that man was Memduh Ün. Back then I ran from a movie set but later on movie sets became my life”recounts Türkân Şoray

Şoray earned her first Golden Orange award in 1964 for her role as Nermin opposite Ekrem Bora in the movie Acı Hayat which was directed by Metin Erksan.^[11] In 1968, Şoray received her second Golden Orange award for her work in the movie Vesikalı Yarim, written by Safa Önal and based on Sait Faik Abasıyanık's "Menekşeli Vadi".^[12] At the Istanbul Film Festival, where the renewed copy of the film was republished many years later, Şoray said:

His fourth film, Head-On (Gegen die Wand), starring Sibel Kekilli, was a major success in 2004 and received several prizes, among them the Golden Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival and the "Best Film" and the "Audience Award" at the 2004 European Film Awards.

Akin at the 2009 Venice Film Festival

In 2005, he directed a documentary about the Istanbul music scene, Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul, which includes musicians such as Ceza, Sezen Aksu, Aynur Doğan and Brenna MacCrimmon. It is narrated by a member of a German experimental band Einstürzende Neubauten, Alexander Hacke, who also produced music for Head-On.

In 2007, Akin's The Edge of Heaven, a German-Turkish cross-cultural tale of loss, mourning and forgiveness, won the prize for Best Screenplay at the 60th Cannes Film Festival in 2007.^[6][7] On 24 October 2007 the same film was awarded the first edition of the LUX prize for European cinema by the European Parliament.^[8]

About the comedy Soul Kitchen (2009) he has said he chose this more light-hearted film because he needed a break after making the "tough" films Head-On and The Edge of Heaven before making his next planned film The Devil. "But", he says, "now I feel ready to finish the trilogy".^[9]

In 2012, his documentary film Polluting Paradise was screened in the Special Screenings section at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.^[10][11]

His 2014 film The Cut has been selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 71st Venice International Film Festival.^[12][13]

In 2017, Akin's film In the Fade was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in the main competition section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.^[14][15] At Cannes that year, Diane Kruger won the Best Actress award.^[16] The film was subsequently selected as the German entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards,^[17] making the December shortlist.^[18] In the Fade won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.