Adnan Tönel was born on May 31, 1965 in Istanbul. He got his first stage experience at the age of 8, in the role he took on Namık Kemal's play "Vatan Yahut Silistra" at Kocamustafapaşa Mehmet Akif Primary School. During his high school years, he played the character of "Master Jacques" in Moliere's play "The Miser"; During this period, he also became interested in amateur photography.
He continued his education by graduating from Istanbul University State Conservatory Theater Department with first place in 1989. In 1992, he completed his master's thesis titled "Acting Technique of 20th Century Avant-Garde Theater" from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Institute of Social Sciences. He received his doctorate in 2007 from the BMA Department of Musicology on the subject of "Musical and Literary Characteristics of Laylas and Lullabies in Türkiye and Azerbaijan".
In the professional field, he voiced at TRT Istanbul Kids Club for many years and took over the promotional voice of TRT 2 in 1998-1999. In 1999-2000, he worked as the culture coordinator at Kanal E, preparing and presenting culture and art programs called "Mozaik", "Kısa Limits No Limit" and "Artvizyon". While he pioneered the establishment of theater departments at Haliç and Yeni Yüzyıl Universities, he gave acting, voice training, diction, effective communication, drama, stage technique and individual voice lessons at Istanbul Technical University and various foundation universities.
He broke new ground in Turkey by staging the adaptation of Hamlet, based on Can Yücel's translation, on his own; He also directed the plays "Double Bass" by Patrick Süskind, "Kaspar" by Peter Handke and "Buffalo in Ten Minutes" by Günter Grass with the support of the Goethe Institut. He took part in plays such as Julius Caesar, Live Broadcast, The Man on the Bridge and Kral Üşümesi at the State Theaters, and served as assistant director in the play "Kral Üşümesi". He took part in seven films in cinema and two projects in television series.
In his writing career, he wrote a children's play called "Ufo Baby"; Hayy Kitap published a research book titled "Remote Controlled Children" aimed at protecting children from the negative effects of the media and the internet. In 2012, he published his research work "Theatre Alone" and presented various papers at national symposiums.
While continuing his amateur interest in photography, he exhibited his exhibition "World Manholes" at the Turkish Grand National Assembly, Beylerbeyi Palace, IFSAK and Bursa Photography Days. He was honored with the "Reading Promotion Performance Award" by the Council of Europe Culture and Sports Directorate. His latest work, "Common Motifs in Turkish and Azerbaijani Lullabies", was published by Lambert Academic Publishing and he currently works as a faculty member at Van Yüzüncü Yıl University.
Productions in which he took part
- Pink Booties (2002)
- Naked (1991) — Hüseyin
- Two Headed Giant (1990)
- Big Man Little Love (2001)
- Everything Will Be Fine (1998) — Osman
- Yozgat Blues (2013) — Yaşar
- Hayat Inc. (2003)
Production and imprint information was taken from TMDB.
