Nacido en Port Maria, Jamaica, Perry Henzell se ha hecho famoso como director del primer largometraje de ficción jamaicano, The Harder They Come. Los ancestros de Henzell pertenecieron a una antigua familia británica que hizo fortuna en las plantaciones cañeras de Antigua.

Henzell creció en una finca con cañaveral cercano a Kingston y fue enviado a esa ciudad a estudiar desde que tenía catorce años, luego asistió a la Universidad McGill entre 1953 y 1954. Abandonó la escuela y se fue a viajar por Europa. Trabajaba eventualmente como asistente de la BBC. Regresó a Jamaica a finales de los años cincuenta, y por ese entonces comenzó a dirigir publicidad hasta que llegó el proyecto The Harder They Come, en el cual estuvo trabajando durante años.

Henzell también filmó buena parte de lo que sería su próxima película No Place Like Home, pero quedó en quiebra antes de poder finalizar la película. Una vez que comprobó las dificultades inmensas de hacer cine en Jamaica se transformó en novelista, y publicó su primer relato, Power Game, en 1982, que fue pensada como una trilogía basada en el personaje de Ivanhoe Martin.

El material rodado de No Place Like Home se perdió. Años después apareció una parte en un laboratorio de Nueva York, y se exhibió al público en el Festival de Toronto.

En el 2003 publicó su segunda novela, Cane, y poco después trabajaba en una secuela de la película que lo convirtió en una de las personalidades más relevantes del cine caribeño: The Harder They Come.

Perry Henzell was born on March 7, 1936, Annotto Bay, St. Mary's, Jamaica and died on November 30, 2006, Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth's, Jamaica. He was most famous for being the director of the first Jamaican feature film, The Harder They Come (1972), starring Jimmy Cliff.

Henzell, whose ancestors included Huguenot glassblowers and an old English family who had made their fortune growing sugar on Antigua, grew up on the Caymanas sugar cane estate near Kingston. He was sent to a boarding school in the United Kingdom at fourteen and later attended McGill University in Montreal in 1953 and 1954. He then dropped out of this school, choosing instead to hitchhike around Europe. He eventually got work as a stagehand at the BBC. He returned to Jamaica in the 1950s, where he directed advertisements for some years until he began work on The Harder They Come.

The Harder They Come is a Jamaican crime film which stars reggae singer Jimmy Cliff, who plays Ivanhoe Martin, a character based on Rhyging, a real-life Jamaican criminal who achieved fame in the 1940s. Other major roles in the film were played by Janet Bartley (Elsa), Basil Keane (Preacher), the late Ras Daniel Hartman (Pedro), Beverly Anderson (now Manley), the late Bob Charlton, Jamaican actor Volaire Johnson (pushcart boy), and well known Jamaican comedians Ed 'Bim' Lewis (photographer), and Aston 'Bam' Winter (drunken husband).

The Harder They Come was released in February 1973 in New York City by Roger Corman's New World Pictures to little attention. It became more popular when it was played to midnight audiences nationwide. The film is referenced in the Clash songs The Guns of Brixton and Safe European Home. In 2005, it was developed into a stage musical by the Theatre Royal Stratford East and UK Arts Productions in London. Adapted by Henzell, it opened on March 25, 2006. The soundtrack to the film is considered a breakthrough for reggae in the United States.

Henzell also shot some footage for what was planned as his next film, No Place Like Home, but he went broke before he could finish the film. Fed up by this, and the lack of finance for further production, he went on to become a writer, publishing his first novel, Power Game in 1982. Both were meant to complete a planned trilogy of films centering on Ivanhoe Martin. The footage for No Place Like Home was lost. Years later, he came across editing tapes in a lab in New York. Just to have a sense of completion, he worked on the project. When he showed it to a few friends, their response was enthusiastic. He eventually was able to retrieve the original footage. No Place Like Home was screened for the public at the 31st annual Toronto International Film Festival in September 2006 at the Cumberland Theatre; it was sold out.

Henzell has been called "the most important filmmaker to emerge from the Caribbean" and his landmark film, The Harder They Come, was responsible for introducing Reggae music to the world. With unique insight, visual sense and original thinking, he forever changed the way we look at things. Through his films, stage plays, and novels, the worldwide impact of his work continues to grow.

Perry Henzell died of cancer on November 30, 2006, aged 70.