Born in Germany to a Kurdish family while his mother was visiting for a medical treatment, Cengiz Akaygün was raised in Turkey until the age of seven, when his family returned to Stuttgart. While studying Communications and Media Studies he pursued his passion for filmmaking by directing an image film for the city of Duisburg. After that, he made a documentary about Kurdish students in Diyarbakir, which was filmed on location in Turkey with a hidden camera. After graduating with his B.A., he became a social worker in Stuttgart where he worked with teenagers from immigrant backgrounds for the organisations "Kreisjugendring Rems-Murr" and "Internationaler Bund." One of his film workshops resulted in the film »The Others«, which the teenagers directed, shot and edited.