Clara van den Broek studied Romance Languages, Cultural Studies and Philosophy at the KUL, and graduated from the Dora van der Groen theater course in 2000. Together with her classmates, she founded the theater company SKaGeN. Since then she has been acting, writing, and creating theater performances at SKaGeN, among others.
She was a dance critic for the newspaper De Morgen, and editor of the performing arts magazine Etcetera. In 2006 she published the novel Aarde (Earth) with De Geus, followed by a number of short stories. In 2012 the collection Some Things Fall into the Water appeared, also with De Geus. From time to time she works as a publicist, among others for De Morgen.
At the Conservatory Van den Broek was first assistant coordinator of the acting major within the drama course, and then coordinator of the same major together with Sara De Roo. She developed research activities there as co-chair of the research group Performance Practice in Perspective. Today she is head of the Drama program, plays, and occasionally teaches acting.