Kurtuluş was born in Uşak, Turkey, and moved at the age of 18 months to Germany, where he grew up with his brother, Tekin, in Salzgitter, Lower Saxony. He performed several minor television roles in episodes of different TV shows and continued working in theater until his big-screen debut in his main role as the young Turkish boy Gabriel in Fatih Akın's filmKurz und schmerzlos (Short Sharp Shock). After his breakthrough he appeared in the successful TV mini-series Der Tunnel, of Roland Suso Ric
