Henning Peker, born in Halle in 1966, attended Leipzig"s drama school from 1989 to 1992. After his graduation, he became a cast member of Neues Theater Halle and starred in productions of "Romeo and Juliet", Max Frisch"s "Andorra", and Kleist"s "Käthchen von Heilbronn", directed by Vadim Glowna. Peker debuted in front of the camera in 1993, in the crime series "Polzeiruf 110" episode "In Erinnerung an...". But Peker did not appear regularly in TV and movie productions until 2002.

With his striking features, Peker starred in Christian Petzold"s award-winning drama "Toter Mann" ("Something to Remind Me"), Winfried Bonengel"s controversial neo-Nazi drama "Führer Ex", or Marco Mittelstaedt"s mother-son drama "Jena Paradies". Again directed by Marco Mittelstaedt, Henning Peker plays his first leading role in "Elbe", the tragicomic story of a friendship that comes to the cinemas in the spring of 2007.