He is a Turkish-Italian director, screenwriter and writer. In 1976, he first went to Perugia Foreigners University in Italy, learned Italian for a year, and then transferred to Rome La Sapienza University to study cinema. After completing his education there, he went to Accademia Navona and Accademia d'Arte Dramatica schools to study art history, costume and theater direction and took lessons from Silvio D'Amico. During this period, he worked with Julien Beck in various positions on the European tour of The Living Teather. In 1982, he was assistant director to Massimo Troisi in the film Scusate il Ritardo, and later to Maurizio Ponzi in the film Son Contento. Ferzan Özpetek worked as an assistant director for nearly 15 years with different directors such as Ricky Tognazzi, Lamberto Bava, Francesco Nuti, Sergio Citti, Giovanni Veronesi and Marco Risi.