Tolga Akcayli

Biography

Tolga Akcayli is a Vincentian film director and Olympic swimmer known for his first feature film, 'Too Lickrish'. Tolga spent most of his early youth organizing plays and filming short stories with his siblings and friends on his father's camcorder. At 18 years of age, Tolga represented St. Vincent & the Grenadines at the 2012 London Olympics in Swimming. Tolga is known for his success with an unusual film production strategy where he convinced his student peers from New York Film Academy to fly to Barbados to make a feature film with no upfront payments, but instead, to receive shares of the profits earned. The film, ' Too Lickrish', which he wrote and directed, was successfully completed, secured international awards, and had international theatrical distribution. It is currently available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Tolga’s goal is to establish a production company that creates narrative, documentary, and TV series that focus on Caribbean stories, culture, and history. Tolga believes it will create channels for international revenue while exporting Caribbean art, culture, and history that can be distributed worldwide.