Neco Çelik, born in 1972 in Berlin, is a director and author. In addition to documentaries and short films, he has made the feature films Alltag (Everyday) (2002) and Urban Guerillas (2003). In 2004 the FAZ am Sonntag awarded him the title of the “Spike Lee of Kreuzberg.” In 2005 he shot in Istanbul his first Turkish-language film, Kısık ateşte 15 dakika. Since 2006 he has directed drama, opera and dance theater, beginning with Feridun Zaimoğlu’s and Günter Senkel’s Schwarze Jungfrauen (Black Virgins) at HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin, and followed in 2007 by Romeo and Juliet. Engagements have also led him to other theaters, including the Munich Kammerspiele, Schauspielhaus Bochum, Berlin State Opera and Braunschweig State Theater. In 2011, his first work as an opera director, Ludger Vollmer’s Gegen die Wand (Head-On), based on the film of the same name by Fatih Akın, was performed at the Stuttgart State Opera and awarded the German Theater Prize “Faust” in the category of music theater. Most recently, Çelik shot his five-part television series Crews & Gangs (RTL2), which is broadcast on joyn.de. He is a consultant on questions of visual staging for companies such as Daimler AG and for state institutions such as the Federal Agency for Civic Education and the Foreign Office.
 
Neco Çelik was a resident at Tarabya Cultural Academy from March to November 2016.