Eva-Maria Van Acker was born in Ghent, where she studied visual arts from 2004–7. After her studies, she founded ‘The Common Room’, an art space in Antwerp where she exhibited her own works as well as curating exhibitions. From 2009–11 she created art-performances, which she performed in Belgium and the Netherlands. She worked as a stage and costume assistant to Ingo Krügler and Jens Kilian at the Oper Basel, Palais Garnier, Theater an der Wien and in Oslo, and worked as co-designer with Kilian on Le nozze di Figaro (Opera Leipzig).

Since 2012 she has worked as a stage and costume designer, including at the Flemish Opera and at Oper Halle on Queen of Spades. She has frequently collaborated with director Robert Schuster  at the Schauspielhaus Frankfurt (Biedermann und die Brandstifter), Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar (Kula nach Europa, Malalai, Europe) and Theater Freiburg (King Arthur, Two Masters, One Servant).

Since 2017 she has collaborated with director Barbora Horáková Joly on Pelléas et Mélisande (Oslo, Theater Basel), Orfeo, Dido and Aeneas (Teatro Arriaga), Un giorno die regno (Opernfestspiele Heidenheim), The Sleeping Beauty(Opéra de Lyon), Der kleine Hoffmann (Theater an der Wien).