Marco Petry was born in Würselen in 1975. In 1996, he enrolled in the directors class at the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film (HFF) in Munich, and two years later, he won the Starter Film Award for his short "Poppen" (1998). In 2000, Petry's feature film debut "Schule" ("No More School") was released. The film about a group of school graduates, who want to have a good time before they officially enter the adult world, garnered Petry the award for Best Newcomer Director at the Hofer Filmtage and featured future stars Daniel Brühl, Jasmin Schwiers, Lavinia Wilson and Denis Moschitto.

In 2002, Petry and Bernd Krause founded their production company Modesto Film. For his second feature film "Die Klasse von '99 - Schule war gestern - Leben ist jetzt" (2003), Petry revisited the themes of his debut. He went on to write the screenplay for "TKKG und die rätselhafte Mind-Machine" (2006), and directed the made-for-TV comedies "Einer wie keiner" (2008) and "Machen wir's auf Finnisch" (2008).

Starring Max Riemelt and Jessica Schwarz, the 2012 tragicomedy "Heiter bis wolkig" was Petry's third theatrically released film. He next started production on the teen comedy "Doktorspiele", which was released in August 2014.