He was born on April 14, 1965. He graduated from 9 Eylül University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Cinema-TV Department in 1985. The short films he made during the school received various awards. His first script, My Aunt, won the First Prize in the 1986 Milliyet Newspaper Script Competition and was filmed by Halit Refiğ. Eight scenarios were filmed between 1986-93.

He wrote and directed his first film 9 in 2001. 9, 2003 Turkey's candidate for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar was selected and received awards at various festivals. In 2004, he directed the film Anlat Istanbul, which he wrote the script, together with 4 different directors. The film Ara, which was released, written and directed in 2008, received the 27th International Istanbul Film Festival's Special Jury Prize and the 15th Golden Boll Film Festival awards for best script and best editing. In 2008, he scripted and directed Hasan Ali Toptaş's novel called Gölgesizler. In 2010, he directed the movie Sound, which was written by Uygar Şirin. Unal most recently directed the movie Nar, which he wrote in 2011.

Four of his books have been published.