Ege Maltepe was born in Istanbul. At the age of 14, she began her journey in theater with Ferhan Şensoy’s “Nöbetçi Tiyatro” at Ortaoyuncular. Her life as an actress, director, and writer continued in New York. After watching one of her monologues, Oscar-winning director Mike Nichols described Maltepe’s performance as “Excellent!”
As a theater artist and writer, she is known for her plays staged in New York, including Variations After Joe (2009), created through improvisation, Tea for 3 (2012), TITS by Prof. G (2013), and Women of New York (2016). She is also recognized for theatrical concerts co-created with pianist/composer Emir Gamsız, such as Drama in Beethoven (2010), Talking to Schubert (2013), Genius #Chopin (2012), The Tempest (2019), and Bach’s Riddle (2022).
In 2009, Maltepe founded Spolin-ist to bring the Spolin improvisation method to Turkey and translated Viola Spolin’s seminal book Improvisation for the Theater into Turkish. After many years in New York, she returned to Turkey in 2018 with Gamsız. Together, they launched Spolin Oyun Okulu (Spolin Play School) in Istanbul and founded Bach Café, where weekly music and theater events are held. During the pandemic, they added Dactylo Doré Publishing and Jeux d’Art to their creative ventures.
A graduate of Bilkent University (2006), Maltepe received a Fulbright scholarship the same year for graduate studies in the United States. She was accepted into The New Actors Workshop in New York, founded in 1988 by three legendary figures of American theater and cinema: Mike Nichols, George Morrison, and Paul Sills. In addition to Nichols, she worked with Edward Albee, Kevin Kline, Stanley Tucci, John Patrick Shanley, David Lindsay-Abaire, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Eve Ensler. At The New Actors Workshop, she encountered Paul Sills’ Story Theater form, which uses the Spolin improvisation method. In New York, she trained in techniques such as Spolin Improvisation, Movement Improvisation, Laban Movement Analysis, ViewPoints, Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, and the Linklater method.
In 2010, Maltepe worked as an assistant for Movement Improvisation classes at The New Actors Workshop. That same year, she assisted Carol Sills, director, editor of Spolin’s books, and Viola Spolin’s daughter-in-law. She brought Spolin’s Improvisation Technique to Turkey by founding Spolin-ist in 2009, and has since led workshops at Istanbul State Conservatory, Trabzon State Theater Festival, Istanbul City Theater’s Genç Günler, and the Istanbul Theater Festival (IKSV), among others. From 2016 to 2018, Spolin-ist New York actors performed Spolin improvisation shows. She has also taught at institutions such as New York University, Bank of America, Jersey City Children’s Theater, Presence-Impact, and Kültür AŞ Istanbul.
As an actress, her roles include Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare, Marta in The Misunderstanding by Albert Camus, Leman in Despite Everything by Nazım Hikmet, Leslie in The Letter by Somerset Maugham (Hudson Guild Theater, NY), Arsinoe in The Hip Hop Misanthrope, as well as performances in Maids and Privatopia (LaGuardia Performing Arts Center), and The Vagina Monologues at 4thU Artivist Theater.
As an artivist (artist/activist), Maltepe was among the directors of V-Day New York / 4thU Artivist Theater, which raised close to $100,000 between 2010–16 for organizations combating violence against women. In 2016, the group premiered Women of New York, written and directed by Maltepe.
From 2013 to 2016, she was the producer of theater and classical music events at Caffe Vivaldi, an iconic New York venue known from Woody Allen films. With Gamsız, she co-created the Classical for All concert series, which became a popular weekly event for New Yorkers.
Their theatrical concert projects (The Tempest and later Bach’s Riddle) were performed between 2019–24 at Istanbul’s İş Sanat, Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall, and Süreyya Opera House. Recently, illustrator Nalan Alaca joined their interdisciplinary work, leading to the creation of the Chatty Pianist comic book. Maltepe and Gamsız have also developed independent film projects, including Chekhov in New York, Transformism (feature film), Greatest Classic (feature film), and Kafa Sesleri.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Maltepe focused on writing, producing the children’s novel The Secret in the Clay Pot and Art of Play, a book on acting technique. Under the umbrella of Jeux d’Art (“Games of Arts”), she and Gamsız launched Dactylo Doré Publishing and the digital platform app.jeuxdart.com.
Currently, Maltepe is preparing new books and the Those Who Write The Play (Bilgi-Yorum series), to be published on app.jeuxdart.com . In the 2025–26 season, her musical play Is Shakspere Shakespeare? and the children’s production The Chatty Pianist: Bach’s Riddle will be staged at Süreyya Opera House.
As an educator, alongside her studio workshops titled The Art of Play, Maltepe teaches the Art of Play course in English at Bilgi University.