Melih Gençboyacı studied theatre at the Academy of Fine Arts of Dokuz Eylül University in Turkey and mime at the Amsterdam School of the Arts. He started his career as an actor in Turkey. As a performer and creator, he worked in both the Dutch and international arts fields. He was one of the co-founders of Schwalbe and Copycats. With Schwalbe, he performs the show Till we die every five years, until all members of the collective have passed away.

As curator of The Embassy Series, Gençboyacı focused on rethinking the meaning of citizenship, which is inevitably fraught with his own experience in the diaspora. He invites thinkers and artists who wrestle with the meaning of borders - geographical as well as artistic, disciplinary, ontological, intellectual, affective and sexual.

In recent years, Gençboyacı was also Artistic Coordinator/Curator at Productiehuis Theater Rotterdam, where he created space for the further development of a new generation of makers, from a local base in Rotterdam but with (inter)national ramifications. In addition, he retrained as a confidant.

Gençboyacı is also proud artistic core member at the Academy for Theatre & Dance's directing course and is involved as advisor and mentor in various arts organisations in and outside the Netherlands.