At the age of five Dean Riesner was a child actor (aka "Dinky Dean") in films such as Şarlo Kaçak (1923) with Charles Chaplin. Dean's father, writer/director Charles Reisner, worked with and was friends with Chaplin and Buster Keaton, giving young Dean a foot in the door to a film career.

Dean would have continued as a child actor had his mother not told his father, "Let the boy have his childhood". Years later, when Dean reached adulthood, his father asked him if he wanted to return to the film business, and if so in what capacity. Dean said he preferred writing. Thus began a career that coined such lines as "Do you feel lucky? Well, do you punk?" from Kirli Adam (1971) and the original, "They'll tie you naked to a chair and get medieval with you" from Köşe Kapmaca (1973).

Dean later developed a reputation as a script doctor, doing uncredited work on such films as Kasabadaki Yabancı (1973), Mavi yıldırım (1983) and Baba III (1990). His reputation for hard work was more than deserved--even in this 80s, he wrote every day.