Oded Kotler

Oded Kotler was born in 1937 in Tel Aviv

Oded Kotler was born in Tel Aviv on 5 May 1937, the youngest son of Hana and Pinchas. He acted and directed plays while still in high school. At 17 he had his first professional role, in Tea and Sympathy at the Ohel Theater.

During his army service he acted and directed in the Central Command entertainment troupe. Afterward he sang with the Batzal Yarok troupe and acted at the Ohel and other theaters.

In the mid-1960s he co-founded the Actors' Stage ensemble. He was artistic director of the Haifa Theater from 1970 to 1978 and again from 1990 to 1998, with a focus on original Israeli plays. In 1980 he founded the Neve Tzedek theater center, co-founded the Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre, and from 1985 to 1990 he ran the Israel Festival.

On film he starred in Three Days and a Child in 1967 and My Michael in 1975, and in 1985 he directed his first feature, Serial Romance. In 2005 he staged the social play An Unemployed Is Born. He led the Herzliya Ensemble Theater from 2011 until it closed in 2013.

In 2017 he performed the monodrama Unwanted Child, directed by Nola Chilton, and received the EMET Prize. He is married to Ordit, and they have a son, Daniel.