Deborah Kara Unger was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to a nuclear disposal specialist mother and a gynaecologist father.

[5] Upon graduation Unger found steady work in Australian films and television series, including Bangkok Hilton with Nicole Kidman.

[2][5] Unger's breakthrough role came in David Cronenberg's 1996 erotic drama Crash, about a group of people who take sexual pleasure from car accidents, a notable form of paraphilia.

In 1998 she played Ava Gardner in HBO's The Rat Pack, and in 1999 she appeared in Payback with Mel Gibson, The Hurricane with Denzel Washington and the award-winning ensemble drama Sunshine.

[6] From 2005 to 2010, Unger appeared in White Noise, Things That Hang from Trees, The Alibi, Silent Hill, 88 Minutes, Walled In, Messages Deleted and The Way.