I was born in Istanbul, Turkey, on April 21, 1946. My parents emigrated to Montreal, Quebec in 1958, and brought me along. I was naturalized a Canadian citizen in 1963. I have been a Quebec resident, on and off since 1958, and permanently since 1996. I graduated from McGill as a Bachelor of Arts in 1967, and went to law school in the same university for one year in 1969-1970. I was president of my class, and passed my year, but quit law school after that, so that I could pursue a career in writing. In writing, I am primarily a playwright, with credits in other fields of writing as well. As a playwright, I have written 15 plays, all but the two latest, having been produced on the stage, some of them internationally, and with multiple productions. ORDINARY MAN, a one-voice piece, played in Toronto for 4 months (1995), and then had successful runs in Prague, Edinburgh and London. ANARCHY, a main stage production of 10 actors, was produced in Toronto and played a controversial run of 5 weeks. MARLENE-MARLENE, a cabaret play was staged repeatedly, in Toronto, Prague and New York. FRIENDSHIPS, a 4-character comedy played in Toronto. TWO, an absurdist play of 6 characters played in London and then Montreal.

I have written 4 cookbooks (with Penguin; Random House and Robert-Rose), and EATING MY WORDS a restaurant guide of Montreal published by Vehicule Press. I have been a restaurant critic (with Toronto's NOW for 7 years, and with Montreal's Gazette for the last two years), and have written many food related articles with several publications (Toronto STAR; SPOSA; T.O., Gazette, etc.)

I wrote one screenplay ( I VANT TO BE ALONE), which was made into a film for TVO; I have done much radio (CBC); was a major contributor to a television cooking show called WORLD CUISINE, now in syndication internationally; and have made/co-made several art-videos.

Artist Code: 182