Markus Hering, born April 26, 1960, in Siegen, graduated from high school, finished an apprenticeship as a carpenter and made a living as a lumberman. During the mid-1980s, he attended actor's training at Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover and became a cast member at Kasseler Staatstheater after his graduation. He stayed in Kassel from 1987 to 1989. After performing at Schauspiel Frankfurt (1989 to 1991) and at Schauspielhaus Wien (1991 to 1993), he went to Vienna's Burgtheater in 1993 where he initially appeared in guest performances, before he made regular appearances and became a permanent cast member in 2002. Hering won the 2003 Nestroy award in the category "Best actor" for his performance in the role of the conductor in Gerd Jonke's play "Chorfantasie". Furthermore, Hering won another Nestroy award in 2008 for his performances in the plays "Verbrennungen" ("Scorched"), "Freier Fall", and "Pool (No Water)".

Since the mid-1990s, Markus Hering has repeatedly starred in supporting roles in movie and in TV (in the majority) productions besides his theatre career. He was seen, for instance, in the TV series "Der Bulle von Tölz", "Tatort", and "Um Himmels Willen", or in films like "Kaliber Deluxe" ("Bloody Weekend", 2000), "Der Stellvertreter" ("Eyewitness", 2002), or "Immer nie am Meer" ("Forever Never Anywhere", 2007). In 2009, director Andreas Dresen gave Hering a leading role in his "film within a film" comedy "Whisky mit Wodka" ("Whisky with Vodka"). In the film, Hering played an aspiring movie actor.

In Dani Levy's comedy "Das Leben ist zu lang" ("Life is Too Long") Markus Hering also played a leading role: the stressed out father and film producer Alfi Seliger, who tries to kill himself to get rid of his detested life. His suicide attempt fails and it seems, that Seliger has to face up his old live again.

In 2011, Hering was given a permanent supporting role as an investigator in the Austrian crime series "Schnell ermittelt". He also played a detective in the "Tatort" episode "Das Dorf" (2011) with Ulrich Tukur. In the same year, he moved from the Burgtheater to the ensemble of the Munich Residenztheater, but returned to the Burgtheater in 2015.

Hering also continued to take on roles in television productions, for example in Heinrich Breloer's "Brecht" (2017) as the writer's father, or as a sleazy porn producer in the Munich "Tatort" episode "Hardcore" (2017). 2020 saw the end of the successful monastery series "Um Himmels Willen" ("For Heaven's Sake"), in which Hering had a permanent role as a monastic advisor since 2005.

On the big screen, he was seen as a passive-aggressive unemployed man in the ensemble of the bitter comedy "Finsterworld" (2013) and in smaller roles in "Heidi" (DE/CH 2015) and "Looping" (2016), among others. Oskar Roehler cast him in the Rainer Werner Fassbinder biopic "Enfant Terrible" (2020) in the important role of Fassbinder's close collaborator Peer Raben.

Hering also played a leading role in "Fossil" (2023), an award-winning drama about an open-cast mine worker fighting a hopeless battle against the impending coal phase-out.