We're insane but we'll do it all again...

Henry Lau was born on October 11, 1989 in Willowdale, Toronto. His father, who has some Teochew anecesty, is from Hong Kong, and his mother is from Pingtung, Taiwan. He was the middle child, with a younger sister, Whitney (1993), and an older brother, Clinton (1988).

Henry was taught music from a young age, practicing piano with his mother around four years old, and at five, he started to take violin lessons. His teacher was Arkady Yanivker, a soloist and former violinist of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Henry was a drummer in a band during his time in middle school. In 2005, he learned to play the electric violin. While in high school, he learned a hip hop dance style called "boogaloo popping" and started incorporating it into his performances with the violin. He was head of both the after-school violin club and popping club, where he came up with the idea of simultaneously doing both after the two clubs had conflicting meeting times. During summer breaks, Henry was constantly practicing his music, taking up to four to five violin lessons a week. He was also playing in several orchestras during this time.

Despite joking around saying that he'd become a popstar someday, he never actually thought he would become one. He didn't know a single thing about K-pop when his friends suggested he try auditioning for SM in 2006. He gave it a chance, because why not? For his performance, he chose a Vivaldi piece on the violin, incorporating his popping dance moves during the faster passages of the song, as well as some a capella singing. He was contacted with an offer the following week — out of 3000 people who participated in the global audition in Toronto, he and one other person were picked.

Henry decided to go with the offer, since he would be able to play violin without having to give up singing and dancing like he would have had to do if he just went with playing classical music profesionally. He had declined it initially, since his father wanted him to go to university, but after a trip to the company in South Korea with her son, Henry's mother was able to convince his father to let him go.

He appeared as a violinist in Super Junior's music video for Don't Don in September 2007. In October 2007, SM Entertainment announced that he would debut as a member of Super Junior's China sub-group, Super Junior-M, the following year. This caused controversy among Super Junior fans due to rumours that SM wanted to add Henry as the fourteenth member of Super Junior, which led fans to form an "Only 13" campaign.

In April 2008, Super Junior-M debuted by releasing a promotional single, U, a Mandarin remake of Super Junior's single. Their debut album, Me was released on April 23, 2008. In 2009, Henry, along with the other Super Junior-M members, made a cameo appearance in the CCTV2 drama Stage of Youth.

A year and a half after their debut, Super Junior-M released their mini-album, Super Girl, on September 23, 2009. This mini album won many awards and even earned the group a nomination for 'Best Vocal Group' at the Golden Melody Awards, which is basically the Chinese equivalent of the Grammy Awards in the USA. Henry performed on Super Junior's Super Show 2, as part of Super Junior-M, and also performed a self-composed English solo song called Sick of Love, which still remains unreleased.

In 2010, during Super Junior-M's hiatus due to the departure of a member, Henry received a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music. He spent 6 months improving his vocal skills and studying music production. While there, he became friends with a fellow student, Gen Neo, and convinced him to go to Korea to work with him. Due to the group's schedule, Henry was unable to complete the course. However, the professors agreed to let him return to school at any time while still keeping his scholarship.

He composed a song with Super Junior's leader, Leeteuk, called All My Heart for Super Junior's album, Bonamana, which released on June 28, 2010. He was also featured in Don't Lie from SM the Ballad's first album, Miss You, released on November 29, 2010. Henry joined Super Junior on the Super Show 3 Tour.

Henry's solo song Off My Mind was included in Super Junior-M's second EP, Perfection, which was released on February 25, 2011. The lyrics to the song were written with Gen Neo while studying at Berklee. He worked with Leeteuk again on a song called Andante for Super Junior's fifth album, A-CHa, which released on September 19, 2011. He toured with Super Junior as a member of Super Junior-M for Super Show 4. Together with fellow Super Junior-M member Zhou Mi, he performed Santa U Are the One on SM Town's 2011 winter album.

In 2012, he became a member of the project group, Younique Unit, for a collaboration between SM Entertainment and Hyundai. Their single, Maxstep, was released on October 31, 2012. In the same year, Henry was cast as the lead in his film debut, Final Recipe. In preparation for the role, Henry studied under chef Lee Yeon-bok and practiced his cooking for 3–4 hours a day over several months.

Super Junior-M's second studio album, Break Down, was released on January 7, 2013. The album includes two songs, Go and It's You, that were produced by Henry's production team, NoizeBank. On February 6, he was confirmed to be a contestant in MasterChef Korea Celebrity. On June 7, 2013, Henry debuted as SM Entertainment's first solo artist in 13 years with his mini album, Trap.

In February 2014, he joined the cast of the Korean military-variety show Real Man and quickly became the break-out star and variety favourite because of his natural optimism and eagerness to learn Korean culture, despite being Canadian-born and completely unfamiliar with the Korean military. In addition to Real Man, his appearance in Star King propelled his rising popularity. This led to more appearances in variety shows, such as being chosen as the first guest in JTBC's Crime Scene.

After almost seven months of production, his second EP, Fantastic, was released on July 14, 2014. At the end of that year, he appeared in tvN's classical music variety show, Always Cantare.

In January 2015, Henry made his Korean acting debut in the music drama Persevere, Goo Hae-Ra. He released two songs, The Way#Lies and Love+ for the drama's original soundtrack. In March, it was confirmed that Henry had joined We Got Married and was partnered with Yewon. In June, he appeared in the second season of Always Cantare. In November, he played a supporting role in the drama Oh My Venus.

Throughout 2016, Henry really started to put his music composing knowledge to use. He became more active in China appearing in a slew of reality shows including Sisters Over Flowers 2 and Are You Normal 3, which he hosted with He Jiong. Henry co-composed the lead single of Se7en's I Am Seven, titled Give It To Me. Next, he collaborated with Sistar's Soyou on the song "Runnin'" which was released through SM Station. On October 26, Henry and Mark released I Want To Enter Your Heart for the OST of Sweet Stranger and Me — the track was written and composed by Henry.

Henry appeared on the Chinese reality show Back to Field, which aired in January 2017. In the same month, he guest starred on the popular reality show I Live Alone, which shows the single lifestyles of celebrities. His appearance led to an increase in the show's ratings and he attracted attention for using live loops to reinterpret Uptown Funk. Subsequently, Henry became a fixed cast member. During his appearance on the show, he composed a brief passage of a song which was then informally titled as What should I do?. The song continued to gain attention through his appearance on You Hee-yeol's Sketchbook for its beautiful melody and its eccentric "revolutionary" lyrics. Later, the finished track, officially titled Girlfriend was released, and it peaked at number one on multiple South Korean daily digital charts and number three on the Gaon Download Chart.

On April 29, 2017, he released the single Real Love and the acoustic version on May 10. On June 23, he released the single I'm Good featuring rapper Nafla. In July 2017, Henry joined the TV variety show Snowball Project, a collaboration between artists from SM Entertainment and Mystic Entertainment. He co-produced the song Lemonade Love with Yoon Jong Shin. He also rearranged Yoon Jong Shin's song, Rebirth, for Red Velvet and released the collaboration single U&I with Sunny on the show. On August 30, he released his single, That One. In October, he released It's You, which he co-composed for the original soundtrack of the drama While You Were Sleeping. The song became the most streamed Korean OST on Spotify for two consecutive years in 2018 and 2019. In December, he appeared on the fourth season of the Chinese reality show Perhaps Love.

In January 2018, it was announced that Henry will arrange and perform a new version of the song Daughter's Love for the soundtrack of the film The Monkey King 3. In February, he released his single Monster in three languages — English, Chinese and Korean. On April 30, it was announced that Henry had completed his contract with SM Entertainment and had decided to leave the agency. He then set up his own studio, Henry Workshop, in China. Henry joined second season of the busking variety show Begin Again and returned for the second season of Back to Field. In May, he opened Xiao Zhan, a Taiwanese cuisine restaurant in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam. Later, he opened a second branch in Secho-dong.

The same year, he was cast in the lead role in the Chinese film adaptation of the popular video game, Zhengtu. The film, under its English title Double World, was released globally on Netflix in July 2020. In August 2018, Henry was cast as Trent in A Dog's Journey, which released in May 2019 and marked his Hollywood film debut. On October 27, Henry held his first fan-meeting at Sangmyung Art Center in Seoul. In November 2018, Henry announced that he had joined Monster Entertainment Group, an agency based in South Korea that he founded with his brother, Clinton. Later that month, he signed with AXIS, a music label founded by former YG creative director SINXITY. In December, Henry became a judge on the Chinese reality show Super-Vocal.

He returned as part of the cast of Begin Again for its third season, which was broadcast in July 2019. On May 9, he released Untitled Love Song, his first release under his new label, Monster. In August, he released I LUV U which he performed live for the first time in Amalfi, Italy. He released the single Don't Forget in October which was co-written by and features indie duo, Rocoberry. He also appeared as a judge on the Chinese reality shows Dance Smash and Miss Voice in the last bit of the year.

In February 2020, Henry released the single Thinking of You and its accompanying music video in collaboration with Atelier Cologne. The same month, he featured alongside AlunaGeorge on the electropop track Nice Things produced by Far East Movement. In May, he was announced to participate in the fourth season of Begin Again. In August, he was selected by Forbes Korea as a '2020 Korea Power YouTuber' for spreading "positive influence" through his YouTube series, Henry Together, where he collaborates with young musical prodigies. On September 17, Henry featured in Take Over, the official song of the 2020 League of Legends World Championship. In October, he was confirmed to play the male lead in the second season of the American series Dramaworld, which was released on Lifetime in April 2021.

Since 2019, he has been a Goodwill Ambassador for the nonprofit organizations International Vaccine Institute and Save the Children charity. In May 2020, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism named Henry as the promotional ambassador for El Sistema Korea, also known as Orchestra of Dream, which supports the musical education of children and young people including those who are underprivileged. Henry performed with members of the orchestra at their 10th Anniversary Concert in November 2020.

On November 18, 2020, Henry released his third EP, Journey, alongside its lead single, Radio. The album peaked at number one on the Gaon Album Chart. SeoulBeats described the album as "captivating" in their review and noted that it "nods to his complicated musical past", being a multi-instrumentalist and idol turned singer-songwriter. The writer notes Henry's "penchant for interesting instrument choices, loop peddles, and electronic mixing" that makes Journey "stand out from most other solo releases as of late".

Henry was awarded the '2020 Art Patron of the Year' in December by the Arts Council Korea in recognition of his furtherance of arts through his original YouTube series Henry Together and his role as the ambassador of Orchestra of Dream.

In June 2021, Henry was appointed ambassador for Seoul Metropolitan Government's 2021 Instrument Donation and Sharing Campaign which aims to distribute used musical instruments to institutions and individuals in need. In August 2021, he joined the fourth season of Street Dance of China as one of the four team captains. In the same month, he released the collaboration song Home with Roy Wang, a track he co-composed for Wang's album, Summer Time. In October, Henry's artwork was featured at the START Art Fair held at London's Saatchi Gallery as part of a special exhibit recognising K-pop's global influence.

In March 2022, he was appointed as school violence prevention ambassador by Mapo Police Station.