Viviane De Muynck studied drama at the Conservatory in Brussels, where she was a student of Jan Decorte. From 1980 she was a member of the Mannen van den Dam collective and acted in Strindberg’s De Pelikaan, Feydeau’s Het laxeermiddel, Bernhard’s De macht der gewoonte and Strauss’ Het Park. In 1987 she won the Theo d’Or Prize for her performance as Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which Sam Bogaerts directed for the De Witte Kraai company. After that she joined Maatschappij Discordia and performed in Alfred Jarry’s UBU ROI, Judith Herzberg’s Kras, Handke’s Das Spiel vom Fragen, and Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure and Twelfth Night. Collaboration with three theatres in the Netherlands resulted in Count Your Blessings with Toneelgroep Amsterdam, directed by Gerardjan Rijnders, Iphigenia in Taurus with the Nationaal Toneel in The Hague, directed by Ger Thijs and Hamlet with Het Zuidelijk Toneel, directed by Ivo Van Hove. She also acted in two Kaaitheater productions: in 1994 in Pijl van de Tijd (Martin Amis), directed by Guy Cassiers and in 1995 the part of Odysseus in Philoktetes Variations (Müller, Gide, Jesuren) by Jan Ritsema, alongside Dirk Roofthooft and Ron Vawter. She also made guest appearances with The Wooster Group in O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape and other plays. She is currently touring in Relazione Pubblica, a choreographic piece by Caterina
and Carlotta Sagna.

Viviane De Muynck also works with musicians, such as on La Trahison Orale (oratorio by Maurizio Kagel) with the Schönberg Ensemble (conductor Rembert De Leeuw), Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte (Arnold Schönberg) with Zeitklang (conductor Alain Franco) and the Spectra Ensemble (conductor Philippe Raté), Lohengrin (Schiarrino) with Neue Musik Berlin (conductor Beat Furrer and director Ingrid von Wantoch Rekowski). She collaborated with Eric Sleichim and the Bl!ndman Saxophone Quartet on Men in Tribulation (May 2004).

She makes regular appearances in film and TV productions. She acted in Vinaya, a film by Peter van Kraaij and Josse De Pauw and in De avonden, directed by R. Van den Berg, after the book by Gerard Reve. Two other notable film parts have
been in Vincent and Theo (directed by Robert Altman) and The Crossing (directed by Nora Hoppe). She was twice nominated for the ‘Gouden Kalf’ at the Utrecht film festival: for the film De avonden and for the TV-drama Duister licht by Martin Koolhoven. In 2005 she acted in the first full-length film by Fien Troch, Someone else’s happiness. Viviane De Muynck is much in demand internationally as a guest lecturer on theatre courses and workshops. In addition to this she has taken to stage directing in Germany. In 2000 she directed the first performances of Die Vagina Monologe at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, a coproduction with Needcompany, and As I Lay Dying (2003), an adaptation of William Faulkner. Since the opera Orfeo she has acted regularly with Needcompany, in the productions by Jan Lauwers. Over the years she has appeared in The Snakesong Trilogy (Le Pouvoir, Le Désir and the full version), Macbeth (1996), Caligula (1997), Morning Song (1999), DeaDDogsDon’tDance/DJamesDJoyceDeaD (2000), Goldfish Game (2002) and No Comment (2003). For DeaDDogsDon’tDance/ DJamesDJoyceDeaD she joined Jan Lauwers in writing the script.