Having been on the stage from a very young age, Hervé Pierre decided to enroll at the École du Théâtre National de Strasbourg in 1974. Three years later, together with his graduating class, he founded the Théâtre de Troc. In 1980, Jean-Pierre Vincent directed him in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost at the Avignon Festival. Under the direction of Jean-Louis Hourdin, Hervé Pierre played in Georg Büchner’s Danton’s Death (La Mort de Danton), in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest, in Albert Cohen’s Le Monde and Hurle France. Dominique Pitoiset entrusted him with the title role in Ivan Goncharov’s Oblomov, as well as with Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens and Othello, and Mephisto in Goethe’s Urfaust. In 1992, he participated in the creation of Les solitaires intempestifs based on a selection of texts by Jean-Luc Lagarce and directed by the author. In 1996, Pierre Meunier cast him as Kutsch in L’Homme de plein vent. In 2001, François Berreur directed him in Le rêve de la veille based on three texts by Lagarce: Music hall, Le Bain and Le Voyage à la Haye; and later in 2007 in Juste la fin du monde by the same author. Hervé Pierre also played in Marguerite Duras’s Le Square staged by Didier Bezace; Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya directed by Yves Beaunesne; Shake, based on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night by Dan Jemmett; as well as in a number of other plays directed by Roger Planchon including La Dame de chez Maxim by Feydeau.

He has been pensionnaire of the Comédie-Française since the 1st of February 2007, and has among others played in Jean-Luc Lagarce’s Le Voyage à La Haye by François Berreur; Molière's Le Malade imaginaire by Claude Stratz; Paul Claudel’s Le Partage de Midi by Yves Beaunesne; and Georges Feydeau’s Un Fil à la patte by Jérôme Deschamps. In 2009, the Professional Association of Theatre, Music and Dance Critics (Syndicat professionnel de la critique de théâtre, de musique et de danse), presented him with the award for best actor for his role in Eduardo de Filippo's La Grande Magie, directed by Dan Jemmett.

On the 1st of January 2011, he became the 522nd sociétaire of the Comédie-Française. Alain Françon offered him the role of Filippo in Goldoni’s La Trilogie de la villégiature, as well as the role of Hatch in Edward Bond’s The Sea; Éric Ruf gave him the title role in Ibsen’s Peer Gynt; while Stéphane Braunschweig gave him the role of Burrhus in Racine’s Britannicus. In 2017, he interpreted Alexander Vladimirovich in Vanya Based on Uncle Vanya, Julie Deliquet’s adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s work; the Author in Arthur Schnitzler’s La Ronde by Anne Kessler; and the Interviewer in Pascal Rambert's Une Vie directed by the author. In Robert Carsen’s first collaboration with the Company in 2017, Hervé Pierre interpreted Trinculo in Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

Hervé Pierre directed Melville’s The Lightning-Rod Man in 1986 and Claude Mollet’s Ordinaire et Disgracié in 1992, while in 2000 he directed The Keeper of Sheep by Fernando Pessoa. In 2014, he joined Jane Birkin and Michel Piccoli in performing the show Gainsbourg, poète majeur. He directed the actors of the Company in Molière's George Dandin. Hervé Pierre is also a movie actor who has filmed with a number of directors, such as Pascal Thomas, Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Lionel Kopp, Xavier Giannoli, Guillaume Gallienne, Benoît Jacquot, Sébastien Thiéry and Vincent Lobelle.

He has been awarded the honor of Chevalier of the order of Arts and Letters and that of Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.