İsmail Küçükkaya had his primary and secondary education in Kütahya, where he was born in 1972. He completed his university education in Department of Journalism at Gazi University.

Küçükkaya started his journalism career in 1991 as a reporter for Hürriyet. After working at Hürriyet, he continued his career at Sabah and Star. Küçükkaya then started working as a columnist for Akşam in 2000, and as Skytürk TV’s

representer for Ankara. Küçükkaya, who was the Ankara representative of Akşam between 2005-2008, became the chief editor of Akşam in November 2008. He has been presenting Çalar Saat, the morning news show on FOX since 2013.

İsmail Küçükkkaya wrote five books Cumhuriyetimize Dair (2008), Cumhuriyetimizin İlk Yüzyılı (2012), Korkma (2014), Biraz Cesaret (2019) and Fikri Hür Vicdanı Hür (2020).