Johan Van Assche (1956) graduated from Antwerp Conservatory in 1979, when Dora Van der Groen was artistic director of the drama department. A few years later Van Assche became a lecturer there himself and in 1995 coordinator of the drama department. In 2001 he was appointed artistic director of the Herman Teirlinck Institute. Since the two institutes merged, Van Assche has been coordinator at the Royal Conservatory. He was a co-founder and actor with Het Gezelschap van de Witte Kraai, which was later taken over by De Tijd. He has been business manager of De Tijd since 1987. Until 2000 he regularly worked as a freelance actor with Het Zuidelijk Toneel in Eindhoven.

Van Assche directs as well as acts. Moreover, he has often appeared both on television (Niet voor publicatie, Recht op recht, Flikken, Witse, Rupel, Het goddelijke monster, Code 37, The Spiral, etc.) and on the big screen (Egmont, De zaak Alzheimer, De hel van Tanger…). At Toneelhuis he had a role in De parallelactie, part I of the series De man zonder eigenschappen (2010), in Bloed & rozen. Het lied van Jeanne en Gilles (2011) by Guy Cassiers, in Middenin de nacht (2012) and Desperado (2013). He has been part of the Toneelhuis actors’ ensemble since 2013. In 2013-14 he appeared in MCBTH (Guy Cassiers and Dominique Pauwels) and Hamlet vs Hamlet (Guy Cassiers and Tom Lanoye). In the 2014-2015 season he will have a role in AUGUSTUS ergens op de vlakte and in De blinden.

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