Kessisoglu was born in
Genoa to an
Armenian family. His paternal grandfather moved as a child with his family from
Smyrna (today
İzmir, Turkey) to Greece and later to Italy to escape from the
Armenian genocide. The family settled in
Trieste for several years before finally moving to Genoa. The original surname, (), was
Turkized during the escape in (with the Armenian ending replaced by the Turkish
patronymic ending ) to arouse less attention, and then Hellenized to (). ==Filmography==