Hary Prinz was born on August 6, 1965 in Vienna. After graduating from high school he went to college and began studies in history, biology and psychology. But things turned out differently. At the age of 19, he founded his own cabaret group called "Achtung Schleudergefahr!" ("Slippery when wet!"), which, according to Prinz, performed in parishes, shopping malls, and homes for the young and the elderly. These experiences triggered his passion for acting – and from 1988 to 1991 he completed an education at the Franz Schubert Conservatory in Vienna.

In 1990, while still a student, he acted under Peter Zadek's direction at the Burgtheater Vienna in the highly acclaimed production of "The Merchant of Venice". After his graduation, Prinz had engagements at the Burgtheater, the Stadttheater St. Gallen, the Wiener Volkstheater and the Wiener Schauspielhaus. From 1996 to 1999 he was a member of the Theater Gruppe 80 in the Vienna district of Mariahilf. 

Hary Prinz played his first film roles in the Austrian productions "Der Schatten des Schreibers" (1995) and "In Heaven" (1997). But it was not until the year 2000 that he began to appear regularly in television and cinema productions. He had a leading role in Götz Spielmann's Oscar-nominated drama "Die Fremde" (AT 2000), as a cab driver who gets involved in a cocaine deal. He played further roles in the historical drama "Schwabenkinder" (DE/AT 2002, TV), in Götz Spielmann's social drama "Antares" (AT 2004) and in Barbara Albert's friendship story and character study "Fallen" (AT 2006); Kai Wessel cast him in the Hildegard Knef film biography "Hilde" (2009) in the role of famous film director Willi Forst. 

But Prinz' main field of work became television, where he appeared in a number of very different productions. For example in the film biography "Margarete Steiff" (DE/AT 2005, as the early love of the title character) and in the nuclear accident drama "Der erste Tag" (AT/FR 2008). For his role as an investigator in the thriller "Missing - Alexandra Walch, 17" (AT/DE 2010) he was nominated for the Austrian Film and Television Award Romy.  

In the family melodrama "Clarissas Geheimnis" (DE/AT 2012) he was the alcohol-addicted cousin of the main character; in Niki Stein's war drama "Rommel" (2012) he played the German general Leo Geyr von Schweppenburg; under Hans Steinbichler's direction Prinz played the stepbrother of a mentally unstable woman in the psychodrama "Das Dorf des Schweigens" (2015) – to name just a few examples of his TV movies.

Prinz also took on numerous guest roles in various series and serials. From 2011 to 2016 he had a recurring role as a head investigator in the crime series "Soko Donau". From 2014 he played a leading role as a chief inspector in the crime series "Die Toten vom Bodensee" (DE/AT) alongside Matthias Koeberlin and Nora Waldstätten. Also from 2014 he had a leading role as an investigator in Wolfgang Murnberger's Styrian "Landkrimi" series. 

On the cinema screen, however, Prinz made himself rather rare. In Wolfgang Murnberger's Wolf Haas adaptation "Das ewige Leben" (DE/AT 2015) he played a supporting role as a policeman, in the award-winning coming-of-age film "Beautiful Girl" (AT 2015) he was the father of the juvenile main character. He again played a major supporting role as a policeman in the psychological thriller "Mein Fleisch und Blut" (AT 2016). 

On television, Prince had a small role in the tragicomedy "Der beste Papa der Welt" (AT 2019) and leading roles in family comedies such as "Trauung mit Hindernissen" (2018) and "Eltern mit Hindernissen" (2020). He also continued to play the above-mentioned investigators in "Die Toten vom Bodensee" and in the "Steirerkrimis". 

Finally, Hary Prinz received a highly acclaimed cinema role from director Oskar Roehler: In the Fassbinder film biography "Enfant Terrible" (2020) he played the legendary actor and Fassbinder companion Kurt Raab.