He graduated from the Higher School of Decorative Arts in Prague, and also completed piano studies at the State Conservatoire as well as studies in stage design at the puppetry department of the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (DAMU). In 1959 and 1960, he started using the “black cabinet” technique for the productions of Skupina 7/7 (The 7/7 Ensemble), which comprised graduates of DAMU’s puppetry department. In 1961, as a member of the Divadlo na Zábradlí Theatre on the Balustrade), he established the Černé divadlo (Black Light Theatre), which he renamed in 1992 to the Černé divadlo Jiřího Srnce (Black Light Theatre Srnec). Most of his productions were introduced primarily abroad until the 1990s, as they did not have their own stage in then-Czechoslovakia. In addition, in 1986 Srnec founded the synthetic Imaginativ Theatre.

Srnec has more than fifty productions to his credit.