Cankat was born on 9 May 1984 in
Ankara to family of
Circassian origin. He was never interested in acting in college. After graduating from university, he came to
Istanbul to work as a graphic designer with his close friend. He decided to become an actor after coming to Istanbul. He studied acting at the Academy 35 Buçuk Sanat Evi and began his professional career in theater. In 2011, he starred in the plays
The Seagull written by
Anton Chekhov and
Barut Kıvısı written by Dejan Dukovski, followed by the theater play
Merhaba Efendim written by Muzaffer İzgü in 2012. He also worked as an assistant to Civan Canova on the play
Kızıl Ötesi Aydınlık, and to
Vahide Perçin on
Otobüs. His first television experience was with
Sana Bir Sır Vereceğim on
Fox TV. In this series, he portrayed the character of "Savaş" which had fantastic powers and controlled minds with his gaze. After making a name for himself, he joined the
Medcezir' series as a guest actor and brought the character of "Cem" to life. After becoming well-known in Turkey, in summer 2014 he got a role on
Star TV's series
Güzel Köylü playing the character of "Cemal". Cankat shared the leading role with
Gizem Karaca, Mehmet Ali Nuroğlu and
Ahmet Mümtaz Taylan. However, the series ended on 17 June 2015. In November 2015, he was cast as "İskender (Alex)" on the historic series
Muhteşem Yüzyıl: Kösem, produced by Tims Productions for Star TV. In January 2016, Cankat won an
Elle Style Awards as Actor of the Year. In 2017, he was cast in a leading role on
Yıldızlar Şahidim opposite
Özge Gürel. ==Theater==