Lakis Lazopoulos

Lakis Lazopoulos was born in Larissa. He studied law at the Democritus University of Thrace. With his university's theater group, he presented his first writings. He pursued a master's degree in criminal law and criminology at the University of Thessaloniki. He wrote revue scripts for the Thessalian Theater ("Kati Trehei sta Gyftika," 1979, "Chaireta Mou ton Platano," 1980). He continued in Athens with the Free Stage ("Tis Elladas to Kankelo," "Allagi kai Pano Tourla"). Alongside Yiannis Xanthoulis, he wrote between 1982-1986 the plays "To PASOK tis Haidos," "Tou PASOK Tous ton Chava," "Mia sto Karfi kai Mia sto Petalo," and "Charatsi apo ton Andrea ton Apache," which revitalized the revue genre. In 1983, he co-wrote the TV series "Oi Apomahoi" with Pantelis Voulgaris. In 1984, he acted in Yiannis Smaragdis' film "Siga, i Patrida Koimatai." In 1986, he played Lysistrata in the eponymous play directed by Andreas Voutsinas. He continued writing and presenting revues and meta-revues, as he calls them, such as "Ti Eide o Giaponezos" (1987), "Ellas Katopin Aortis" (1989), "Itan Ena Mikro Karavi" (1990), "Kati Echo na Sas Po" (1991), "Epitelous Monoi" (1994), "I Kyriaki ton Papoutsion" (1997), "Ta Leme" (2002), "Ki Aeras sta Pania Mas!" (2003), "Pou Paei Afto to Leoforeio?" (2004), and "O Viopalaistis sti Stegi" (2008), which established him as a rejuvenator of the genre with great popular appeal. In 1988, he staged Gogol's "Diary of a Madman" directed by Minos Volanakis, and in 1993, he starred in "The Threepenny Opera" directed by Jules Dassin, played the narrator in Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf," and began the most successful TV series on Mega, "Deka Mikroi Mitsoi." In 1994, he starred in Nikos Nikolaidis' TV movie "To Koritsi me tis Valitses" and Yiannis Smaragdis' film "Cavafy." In 1999, he filmed his first feature film "Beware of Greeks" in Australia and Crete, directed by John Tatoulis. This was followed by the films "My Best Friend" (2001), which he co-directed with Giorgos Lanthimos, and "R20" (2004), which he directed himself. In the summer of 2002, he presented the monologue "Oi Ilikies tou Geloiou" in a dramatic composition by K. H. Myris and directed by Sotiris Hatzakis. In 2004, he appeared in Epidaurus in Aristophanes' "Plutus" directed by Nikos Mastorakis. He returned to the Argolic theater in 2005 with Aristophanes' "Acharnians" directed by Vangelis Theodoropoulos. Since 2004, he has been presenting the satirical news show "Al-Tsantiri News" on Alpha. In 2005, he staged Terry Johnson's play "Hysteria" directed by Konstantinos Arvanitakis. In 2007, he starred in Yiannis Smaragdis' "El Greco." In 2012, he embarked on his first international tour with the show "Sorry, I'm Greek." His lyrics have been set to music by Stamatis Kraounakis, Lavrentis Machairitsas, Thanos Mikroutsikos, Dionysis Tsaknis, and have been sung by Haris Alexiou, Eleftheria Arvanitaki, Dimitris Mitropanos, Vasilis Papakonstantinou, among others.