Jenny Schily was born on May 14, 1967, in Berlin, the daughter of lawyer and later Minister of the Interior Otto Schily and his then-wife, painter Christiane Schily. After completing her studies at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin, Schily appeared on stages across Germany, including the Staatstheater Dresden and Schauspiel Frankfurt. From 2000 to 2003, she was a member of the ensemble at the Theater am Turm (TAT) in Frankfurt. She then joined the ensemble of the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz in Berlin, where she has remained till 2006. 2010 and 2011 she played at the Maxim Gorki Theater.

Jenny Schily made her film debut in 1980 with a small role in Claudia Holldack’s "Don Quichottes Kinder" ("Don Quixote's Children"). It wasn't until 1995 that she returned to the screen, appearing alongside André Hennicke in the feature film "Sunny Point". Since then, she has combined her stage work with numerous television roles, including key supporting parts in productions such as "Der Kuß des Killers" (1998), "Umwege des Herzens" (2001), and "Polizeiruf 110 – Traumtod" (2006). Her most significant screen role to that point came in 2000, when she played a supporting part in Volker Schlöndorff's Red Army Faction drama "Die Stille nach dem Schuss" ("The Legends of Rita"), portraying a promising legal trainee who becomes a terrorist in her effort to challenge the capitalist system. 

In 2008, Schily took on two leading roles: In the award-winning TV drama "Ihr könnt Euch niemals sicher sein", she played the mother of a potential school shooter; in the feature film "In jeder Sekunde" ("At Any Second"), she portrayed a gallery owner who begins an affair with a married man. After a series of guest appearances in crime dramas such as "Ein starkes Team", "Das Duo", and "Tatort", she returned to the big screen in 2011 with two striking performances: In "Das System – Alles verstehen heißt alles verzeihen" ("The System"), she played the mother of a young man whom she urges not to dig into the murky past of his late father; and in Ulrich Köhler’s award-winning drama "Schlafkrankheit" ("Sleeping Sickness"), she starred as a German doctor in Africa struggling with the separation from her husband and daughter. 

In the surreal drama "Die Vermissten" ("Reported Missing", 2012), Schily impressed as a mother whose 14-year-old daughter vanishes without a trace. In the TV drama "Der Fall Jakob von Metzler" (2012), she portrayed the mother of the kidnapped and murdered banker's son, Jakob von Metzler. The psychological drama "Houston", in which she played the wife of an alcoholic headhunter (Ulrich Tukur), premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013. That same year, she also appeared in "Die Frau, die sich traut", portraying the supportive best friend of a terminally ill woman whose dream is to swim across the English Channel.

In early 2014, Schily played the mother in "Das merkwürdige Kätzchen" ("The Strange Little Cat"), a film that used fragmented storytelling and stylized techniques to depict a weekend in the life of a five-member Berlin family. Also in 2014, she appeared as the former partner of the detective played by Joachim Król in the highly acclaimed "Tatort" episode "Der Eskimo". In the "Tatort" episodes "Château Mort" (2015) and "Der Himmel ist ein Platz auf Erden", she had smaller supporting roles as the mother or wife of a murder victim. In contrast, she played an ambitious detective in Lars Kraume's TV crime film "Die letzte Flucht" (2015), based on the novel by Wolfgang Schorlau. 

The 2015 Berlinale Panorama section featured the premiere of "DORA oder die sexuellen Neurosen unserer Eltern" ("Dora or the Sexual Neuroses of Our Parents"), in which Schily played a mother who must come to terms with her 18-year-old daughter, who has a mental disability, wanting to lead a sexually self-determined life. Shortly afterward, Dani Levy's relationship comedy "Der Liebling des Himmels" premiered at the Filmkunstfest Schwerin, with Schily playing a lead role as the ex-wife of a stressed-out Hamburg psychiatrist.

Television remained a key part of her career in the following years. In 2016, she appeared in "Dead Man Working", a thriller set in the banking world and directed by Marc Bauder, which won the Grimme Award. In 2019, she starred in the true-crime mini series "Das Geheimnis des Totenwaldes" ("Dark Woods") as the wife of a commissioner whose sister disappears without a trace. 

Schily also continued to make appearances in the "Tatort" series: In 2019's "National feminin", she portrayed a controversial law professor with conservative views; in 2021's "Flash", she played the daughter of a former therapist of a serial killer, now suffering from dementia; and in 2023's "Diesmal ist es anders", she played the editor-in-chief of a Cologne-based lifestyle magazine. 

An international successful was the award-winning series "Babylon Berlin", in which Schily appeared in seasons three and four (broadcast in 2020 and 2023) as the compassionate director of the Barnimstraße women's prison. In 2023, she also appeared in the fourth season of the hospital series "Charité", set in the sweltering summer of 2049, where she played Charité director Emilia Bonetti. 

In addition to her extensive television work, Jenny Schily has continued to appear regularly on the big screen. In 2016, she played an obsessive animal caretaker in Sandra Nettelbeck's episodic tragicomedy "Was uns nicht umbringt" ("What Doesn't Kill Us"), alongside Bjarne Mädel and August Zirner. In 2018, she appeared in Tom Sommerlatte’s sensitive family drama "Bruder Schwester Herz" ("Brother Sister Heart"), in which her character stirs up tensions between two siblings. In Sabrina Sarabi’s acclaimed coming-of-age film "Prélude" (2019), she was the mother of a young pianist who buckles under the intense pressure of his studies. 

In 2023, Schily gave a powerful leading performance in the award-winning debut film by Swiss director Katharina Lüdin, "Und dass man ohne Täuschung zu leben vermag" ("Of Living Without Illusion"), portraying an actress who becomes violent toward her lesbian partner. She was also compelling in the drama "Im Haus meiner Eltern" ("In My Parents' House"), in which she played a spiritual healer overwhelmed by the responsibility of caring for her schizophrenic brother.