Born in Istanbul in 1982, Can Evrenol was a huge fan of Star Wars, He-Man, and Knight Rider at the age of 5. He grew up with his parents' love for cinema, architecture, Renaissance art, and Classical music. His father's favorite movie was 2001, A Space Odyssey. His mother's favorite director was Passolini. His favorite bed time story was The Old Man And The Sea. 

 

At the age of 7, his passion in life were his GI Joe action figures, Manowar cassettes, Conan comics, and watching Robocop, Goonies, James Bond, Rocky IV again and again on their Betamax.

 

Evrenol is a proud graduate of Üsküdar American Academy, where his literature teacher William Chisholm had a profound influence. Evrenol cites the class discussions of such litrerary works as The Lord of The Flies, Cathcer In the Rye, A Seperate Peace, 1984, Martian Chronicles, All My Sons, - as well as in Turkish literature; Peyami Safa, Yakup Kadri, Tarık Dursun K, Sait Faik, Sulhi Dölek - as his earliest education in narration and storytelling.

 

He studied abroad at The University of Kent at Canterbury, graduating in joint honours; "Art History" and "Film Studies". He attended NYFA in LA, for a brief 8 week filmmaking workshop, where he shot his first short film "Screws / Vidalar", based on a short story by Sulhi Dölek.

As a short filmmaker, his influences included Tarantino, Cronenberg, Lynch, Kubrick, Romero, Fulci, Haneke, Noe, Takashi Mike, Lovecraft, Cunningham, Ceylan, and Demirkubuz. His friendship with fellow cinephiles Yiğit Unan, Yeşim Tabak, Murat Tolga Şen, Eren Akay and Evrim Ersoy expanded his gusto for the weirdest, rarest and the most diverse films in cinema history.

 

In 2010, he was selected to attend Sitges International Film Festival with his award winning short film To My Mother and Father, where he met Reha Erdem and Ömer Atay, who offered him a job as a TVC director in Istanbul.

Returning to Istanbul, Evrenol made 2 indy feature horror films; Baskin (2015) and Housewife (2017)
A segment in the horror anthology; The Field Guide To Evil (2018)
And a low budget post-apocalyptic kids-on-a-mission movie; Girl With No Mouth (2019)

His debut film Baskin become a mini cult classic, premiering at Toronto International Film Festival's "Midnight Madness" section, winning the Best New Director award at Fantastic Fest, and selling over 40 countries.

In 2018, Evrenol was selected as the first ever director to helm a Netflix original series in his home country; The Protector. He parted ways after the 1st season due to creative differences.

In 2020, he co-wrote (with Merve Göntem) and directed an 8 episode mini-series Çıplak, a call girl drama in Istanbul, which turned out to be a controversial underground hit in Turkey. While his movies are most celebrated outside Turkey, Çıplak remains Can Evrenol's most popular and accessible work at home. Following the 1st season which was based on a true story, the 2nd season, titled Çıplak II, relied on heavy spiritual and fantastic elements, with a dream-logic narrative.  

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His first novel Mehtap, about a young Turkish woman confronting her transreligious, hyper upper class, and extremely spiritual family cult, is published by Altıkırkbeş Yayın in 2022.

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Evrenol is based in Istanbul, married to Elif Domanic and has 2 sons; Uzay and Mars.