Catherine Hiegel was appointed as a pensionnaire at the Comédie-Française on February 1, 1969 and became its 458th sociétaire on January 1, 1976.

After training with Raymond Girard and Jacques Charon, she enrolled at the Conservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatique (National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts) of Paris in 1968, and sharpened her acting skills in the classes of Jean Marchat and Lise Delamare.

During the 2007/2008 season, she participated in Une confrérie de farceurs, directed by Jean-Louis Hourdin and François Chattot, and performed the role of Magdelon in The Precious Ridiculous (Les Précieuses ridicules) staged by Dan Jemmet. In 2007, she played Toinette in Molière’s The Imaginary Invalid directed by Claude Stratz, Dona Pasqua in Goldoni’s Il campiello (The Little Square) under the direction of Jacques Lassalle, and Marthe in Koltès’s Le Retour au désert (Return to the Desert) staged by Muriel Mayette-Holtz.

Throughout her career at the Comédie-Française, she performed key roles from both the classical and contemporary repertoire, going on a full exploration of the whole gamut of the condition of women, notably by playing Molière’s heroines, such as Angélique in George Dandin or Confused Husband and Martine in Le Médecin malgré lui (The Doctor in spite of Himself), and Goldoni’s heroines, such as Brigida in The Villeggiatura Trilogy, Mirandoline in La Locandiera (The Mistress of the Inn), and Coraline in La Serva amorosa (The Loving Maid). Moreover, she played the roles of Varvara in Gorky’s Summerfolk, Leonore d’Este in Goethe’s Torquato Tasso, Laura in Strindberg’s Father, Solange in Genet’s The Maids (Les Bonnes), as well as Mother Courage in Brecht’s Mother Courage and her Children.
During the first decade of 2000, she has notably played the roles of Tita Bordereau in Henry James’s The Aspern Papers, of The Woman in Tony Kushner’s Homebody/Kabul, of la jeune femme (The young woman) in Marguerite Duras’s Savannah Bay, of Carlotta in Lars Norén’s And Give Us the shadows (Embrasser les ombres), of Dorine in Molière’s Tartuffe, and of the woman with a tress in Philippe Minyana’s La Maison des morts.
Inside and outside the Comédie-Française, she has worked under the direction of Jacques Lassalle, Jorge Lavelli, Jean-Paul Roussillon, Giorgio Strehler, Bruno Bayen, Dario Fo, Patrice Kerbrat, Philippe Adrien, Joël Jouanneau, Patrice Chéreau, Éric Vigner, Marcel Bozonnet, Robert Cantarella and Marcella Salivarova, etc.

In the realm of the Comédie-Française, she staged Molière’s L'Avare(The Miser) with Serge Bagdassarian, Les Femmes savantes and George Dandin, or Confused Husband, Ewa Poka’s La Demoiselle de la poste, and Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming.

Outside the Comédie-Française, she performed in Jean Luc Lagarce’s J'étais dans ma maison et j'attendais que la pluie vienne (I Was in the House, Waiting for the Rain) directed by Joël Jouanneau. She starred in numerous other plays such as Koltès’s Quay West (Quai Ouest) under the direction of Patrice Chéreau, Copi’s An Untimely Visit (Une visite inopportune), Lars Norén’s The Last Supper (La Veillée), Berkoff’s Greek, Serge Kribus’s Arloc or Werner Scwab’s First Ladies (Les Présidentes).

In the movies, she has performed in Thomas Gilou’s Michou d’Auber, in Gérad Krawczyk’s It’s Our Life (La Vie est à nous), and in Bertrand Blier’s Les Côtelettes. Among the directors she has collaborated with, we can name Etienne Chatilliez, Josiane Balasko, Dominique Cabrera and Jean-Jacques Zilbermann. On TV, she has appeared in Jean-Louis Benoît’s movie Le Bal and in Cravenne’s L’Homme qui a perdu son ombre.

She got several nominations for the Molière Awards, notably in 2007 as Best Supporting Actress for the role of Marthe in Return to the desert (Le Retour au désert). In 2005, she was awarded with the Critic’s Choice Prize as Best actress for her role in I Was in the House, Waiting for the Rain (J'étais dans ma maison et j'attendais que la pluie vienne).

Catherine Hiegel left the Troupe on December 31 2009.