Ingrid Burkhard was born on June 7th, 1931 in Vienna, Austria. She studied acting at the Max-Reinhardt-Seminar in Vienna and made her first professional appearance at the Vorarlberger Landestheater. From 1953 on, she had engagements at the Landestheater Linz, the Städtischen Bühnen in Bonn and at the Schauspielhaus in Zurich, together with her husband Hannes Siegl. In 1954, their son Dietrich Siegl was born, who later also pursued a career in acting; four years later their daughter Katharina was born. In 1972, Burkhard and Siegl moved to Vienna, where Siegl became an ensemble member of the Burgtheater. Burkhard starred in plays at various Viennese theatres such as the Theater in der Josefstadt and the Burgtheater.

Since the mid-1970s, Ingrid Burkhard has also been acting in TV productions and film. She became known to a wider audience in Austria for her role as the reasonable wife of a hot-tempered philistine in the Austrian cult series "Ein echter Wiener geht nicht unter" (1975-79). She had reoccurring roles in the youth series "Waldheimat" (AT 1984) and in the miniseries "Calafati Joe" (1989).

On the big screen, Burkhard mostly starred in supporting roles, e.g. in the comedy "Verlassen Sie bitte Ihren Mann" ("Please Leave Your Husband", AT 1993) and as the quick-witted owner of a takeaway in Wolfang Murnberger's adaptation of Wolf Haas' novel "Komm, süßer Tod" ("Come Sweet Death", AT 2000). Between 2000 and 2009, she primarily worked for TV again.

Shortly before her 80th birthday in 2011, she received the Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria. Despite her age, she continues working and starred in a supporting role in Michael Glawogger's TV crime story "Die Frau mit einem Schuh" (AT 2014) and as an excentric who murders her husband in the tragicomedy "Drei Eier im Glas" (AT 2015). She played a small but important part in "Toni Erdmann" (DE/AT "016) as the ex-wife of the main character played by Peter Simonischek. Director Ronny Trocker cast her in a main role as a farmer, who tries to maintain the farm after her husband's death, for his award-winning drama "Die Einsiedler" ("The Eremites", DE/IT/AT 2016).