Utlu was born in Hanover to Turkish parents and studied economics in Berlin and Paris. 

He has written numerous essays for various newspapers, magazines and anthologies, as well as poetry, short prose, and three novels. Two of those have been adapted for the stage, one of those by himself. 

Together with Berlin’s Maxim Gorki Theatre house-author Sasha Marianna Salzmann, Utlu wrote a play about the NSU murders, a series of racist murders by a German Neo-Nazi terrorist group; the play was premiered in 2012 at the post-migrant and multicultural theatre Ballhaus Naunynstraße, Berlin.