Erol Günaydın started his professional acting career in 1955 with the play "The priest ran away", staged at Haldun Dormen Pocket Theater.

[2] Active in theater since 1955 and in cinema since 1960, he celebrated his golden jubilee together with the fortieth anniversary of his marriage with spouse Güneş Günaydın, a native of Manisa, in company of his children, one of whom married into an Italian family.

Erol Günaydın was born in Akçaabat, Trabzon Province, and became involved in theater while he was a student in Galatasaray High School.

He played in a very varied range of plays and character roles in films since then and became nationally famous especially once he also started appearing in TV shows on a frequent basis, first as the Turkish voice of Yogi Bear, and then in his Nasreddin Hoca and meddah shows, with also a leading role in the very successful TV serial "Çiçek Taxi".

His memoirs, put in writing in the form of long interview with the journalist Emine Algan, were published in 2007.