Züli Aladağ came to Germany in 1973 and grew up in Stuttgart. After briefly studying theater arts in Munich, he completed a six month internship at Roland Emmerich's Moon 44 in Stuttgart. Several jobs followed as a production assistant, production manager and assistant director for  short films, commercials, feature films and documentaries. He subsequently worked as an editor and co-director of semi-documentary TV series. Since 1993, he has worked as a producer and since 1995 has been a freelance director of documentaries and feature films for which he also frequently writes the screenplays. He received a degree from the Academy of Media Arts Cologne in summer 1999.

His controversial dramatic film dealing with integration Wut (2006) won numerous awards. Aladağ is founder of the initiative junges europäisches kino (j e k). Aladağ has been living in Berlin since 2002.