Emre was born and spent his formative years on the vibrant European side of Istanbul, Turkey. His most influential early experience was playing one of the leading roles in a successful play, where he portrayed a young Turkish poet stricken by poverty right after the Second World War. The intense character study conducted under the tutelage of Turkish national TV's acting coaches during the year-long rehearsals kindled his interest in storytelling, which led to his desire to study theater. However, at his family's and teacher's insistence that he should pursue a subject with more practical job opportunities, he decided to study business management.
Emre ended up landing a well-paid job in an American company in Istanbul even before completing his bachelor's degree. Although he tried to remedy the insipid character of his creative life with weekend photojournalism, after a four-year career in finance, he was no longer able to ignore the voice in his heart. He quit his job and moved to California to study filmmaking.
He studied digital video and multimedia while working as a production assistant and boom operator in movies. After gaining adequate production experience, he prepared his graduate application and was fortunate enough to be accepted into some of the world's most distinguished film schools: AFI, Chapman, UCLA, and USC. He studied directing at UCLA and screenwriting at USC.
Emre completed his MFA degree in screenwriting from USC's School of Cinematic Arts. His thesis script, Soccer Days, received the school's prestigious "Honor of Distinction" award.
He wrote and directed a feature film, Winter in LA, which won the Best Feature Film award and Best Director nomination from the Asian Film Festival in Los Angeles. His feature documentary, Life as it Happens, is distributed by NETA and will be on PBS in 2024.
Currently, Emre is developing documentary and feature film projects.
