Born in Hamburg on 12.9.1979, he grew up in Hamburg-Dulsberg. Having begun to write stories at the age of eleven, he published a novel, "Graue Nächte" at the age of fourteen and began making Super-8 films with his friends. In 1998 his 50-minute ghetto drama "Hartes Blut" was broadcast on the citizen"s channel "Offene Kanal". After taking final school examinations and completing his community service year from 2002-04, he took up studies at Hamburg Media School, graduating as a director in 2004. "Chiko" is his first feature film.

Two years later he completed his second feature film "Blutzbrüdaz", starring real-life rapper Sido as an aspiring hip hop musician who is spoiled by his overnight success.

In 2013, Yildirim directed the "Tatort" episode "Feuerteufel", which marked the debut of a new duo of police detectives played by Wotan Wilke Möhring und Petra Schmidt-Schaller. The same year, he made a 15 minute segment on his hometown Hamburg for the TV documentary series "16 x Deutschland – Menschen – Orte – Geschichten".

Yildirim's next feature premiered at the 2015 Munich Film Festival: Based on the eponymous novel, "Boy 7" tells the story of a young man suffering from amnesia who uncovers a conspiracy. He next directed another "Tatort" episode ("Zorn Gottes"), which was aired in 2016.

Yildirim again returned to the gangster genre with "Nur Gott kann mich richten" (2017), starring Moritz Bleibtreu, Kida Khodr Ramadan and Edin Hasanovic. The film won the award for Best Picture at the 2017 Hesse Film Awards and was released in January 2018.