Biography
Cüneyt Özdemir (born February 8, 1970) is a Turkish journalist, television host and producer. Özdemir is the anchorman of the leading local and foreign affairs program 5N1K, broadcast on CNN Türk Television for 19 years now.
Cüneyt Özdemir was born and raised in Ankara, Turkey. He was born into a Muslim-Turkish Family in Ankara. He is fluent in Turkish and English. Özdemir is married to Zeynep Inanoglu. Their son was born in 2012. He lives in Istanbul and New York.
Özdemir started his journalism career at 32. Gün International Affairs Program. He worked there as the executive director of the program. 32. Gün was produced and presented by prominent Turkish journalist Mehmet Ali Birand. In 1996, Özdemir became an international war correspondent where he has reported on major political crisis sites at many of the world's hotspots including the Lebanese-Israeli border, Iraq and Afghanistan. He covered numerous special stories from war zones.
In 1999, he helped found CNN Türk. In 2000, he founded Turkey's pioneer international news program 5N1K which takes its name from the six fundamental questions of journalism which are What (Ne), When (Ne Zaman), Where (Nerede), Why (Neden), How (Nasil) and Who (Kim). He has been producing and presenting the program 5N1K which is broadcast on CNN Türk Television for 19 years now. The program has won Turkey's all prestigious journalism awards, at least several times. Throughout the years, the program focused on international wars, political affairs, world cups, Olympics, fashion weeks, groundbreaking news from all over the world as well as Turkish Diplomacy and local affairs. The program has managed to combine hard news and soft news with a colorful and vivid perspective. Over the years, Özdemir has reported on major crises from many of world's hotspots including Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Palestinian territories and Israel. He has secured exclusive interviews at such countries. He has had many memorable moments in his television career. He went to Athens in 2004 to cover the World Olympics. In 2006, he visited the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba and produced an investigative news story there. In 2007, he followed the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony in Stockholm. That year, his program 5N1K was aired on CNN Türk for the 300th time. In 2008, he went to Latin America and followed the leftist movement there. He also worked on an investigative story at Harvard University where he covered new cell practices. In 2011, he went to Libya to follow the political chaos at the heart of the country. There, Özdemir has conducted a groundbreaking interview with Libya's deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi. In 2014, Cuneyt Ozdemir went to Gaza and Tel Aviv, which are 2 different sides of the war. There he covered an exclusive story and told 2 city's stories to the world. In 2017, Cuneyt Ozdemir followed the Reza Zarrab case in the courtroom from day one to last day. He made live broadcasts on YouTube -in front of the court- everyday and reported last updates about the case. The world learned about the case and last updates from his exclusive live broadcasts and 5N1K program Reza Zarrab Exclusive episodes. By his Reza Zarrab news case he won Journalists Union of Turkey's TV News Program Award.
In 2019, he went to Caracas, Venezuela to follow the political-social chaos and coup attempt. There, Cüneyt Özdemir made a very crucial and groundbreaking interview with Mr. Nicolas Maduro. This interview was Nicolas Maduro's first interview after the coup attempt. The world followed what's happening in Venezuela via Cüneyt Özdemir's exclusive news both from his YouTube channel and 5N1K program. His other prominent works include interviews with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Christiane Amanpour, Noam Chomsky, Felice Casson Gladio, Orhan Pamuk, Zaha Hadid, Liz Hurley and Hugh Jackman. Özdemir continues to cover important news stories from all over the world. He continues to follow and comment on world agenda day by day from a different perspective with his live YouTube broadcasts.
Özdemir founded the production company DIPNOT TV in 2008. DIPNOT TV Company led by Cüneyt Özdemir continues to produce TV shows and documentaries. Özdemir created new business models in publicity, media and social media projects. His company also produces corporate promotion shootings, advertisements, viral videos both for internet and TV platforms as well as social media campaigns. Over the years Özdemir's production company has worked with numerous important clients including Akbank, Kalebodur, Turkcell, Vodafone, Google, Ericson, Coca-Cola, Efes Pilsen, Tuborg, Unilever, Chevrolet and so on.
