Mustafa Kaplan was born in Konya, Turkey. He studied Telecommunication and Electrical Engineering at Yıldız Technical University in Istanbul. During his studies, he started taking dance classes from Geyvan McMillan in 1984. He took theatre lessons from Bulunmaz Theatre Company in 1985. Although he graduated from the university in 1990, he never worked as an engineer. After dancing in the Modern Ballet Company between 1989-1992, he worked at the Theatre Research Laboratory which was a part of the Municipal Theatre of Istanbul as a choreographer and dancer for about ten years. He is the co-founder of dance and performance companies, such as Yeşil Üzümler Dance Company, Dans Fabrikası, Taldans Company and Çatı Association. Apart from his own choreographies, he has danced in several additional pieces. He has been one of the directors of the Taldans Company with Filiz Sızanlı since 2002. Kaplan has participated in many theater and dance festivals in Turkey and abroad with his productions and also performs dance/movement workshops while currently teaching at ÇATI Contemporary Dance Artists Association, Mimar Sinan University Contemporary Dance Department and Istanbul Okan University Conservatory Theater Department.