Born in 1928 in Mersin. He is known for numerous plays, especially musicals and comedies he staged as director, manager and actor. He graduated from Galatasaray High School and Robert College where he first experienced in theatre. He trained at Yale on theatre directing and had his initial success as stage actor and director in Hollywood, New York and Paris. Returning to Turkey in 1954, he joined Muhsin Ertuğrul’s Küçük Sahne and appeared first in Frederick Knott’s Write Me a Murder (Dial M for Murder). In 1955, he first established Cep Theatre, and then in 1957, Dormen Theatre. He trained many established directors and actors such as Tuncay Çavdar, İlhan İskender, Erol Günaydın, Asaf Çiyiltepe, Erol Keskin, Altan Erbulak at the theatres he founded, and staged noteworthy plays like Alexandre Breffort&Marguerite Monnot’s Irma La Douce (1961), Lionel Bart’s Dickens adaptation Oliver (1968), Georges Feydeau’s Une puce à l’oreille / A Flea In Her Ear (1971), Erol Günaydın & Cemal Reşit Rey’s Yaygara 70 (1970) and İstanbul Masalı (1971). In 1971, he participated at theatre festivals in Rome and London with İstanbul Masalı. He directed 75 plays and acted in 81, also receiving awards at the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival in 1966 and 1967 for his roles in Bozuk Düzen and Güzel Bir Gün. He prepared various TV shows after shutting his theatre down in 1972, and in 1983 he re-opened Dormen Theatre. The Rey brothers’ operetta Lüküs Hayat which he directed for the İstanbul Municipal Theatres the same year, went on to break box-office records for years. Granted an Honorary Doctorate of Sciences by Hacettepe University in 1986, Dormen recently celebrated his 50th year in theatre.