Xenia Kalogeropoulou

Biography

Xenia Kalogeropoulou (Greek: Ξένια Καλογεροπούλου; born September 12, 1936) is a Greek actress, who appeared in both Greek and English-speaking films in her career. With her career, spanning six decades, she has appeared in over forty films and television shows.

Kalogeropoulou was born in Athens, Greece and studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She made her acting debut in the 1956 play, La Troupe Francaise. She broke into the movies with a minor part in Mrs. Midwife. She would go on to appear in Marriage Adventures (1959), West Side and East Side (1959), Soldiers in Uniform (1960), and Lisa, Tosca of Athens (1961). Her first starring role was in 1961's, 2000 Sailors and a Girl.

In 1960, she starred alongside Jayne Mansfield and newcomer Trax Colton in It Happened in Athens, a film that was not released until 1962. As the 1960s progressed, Xenia received steady acting work. She made her television debut in a 1976 episode of Athanates istories agapis. She retired from film acting after making an appearance on Our Old Friends in 1985, but returned in 2013 with a role in the film Before Midnight, which was her fortieth film. In 1964, she won the best actress award in Thessaloniki Film Festival for the film Gamos Ala Ellinika.

She followed a career in writing plays for children's theater, which were presented at the "Porta" Theater, such as Ulysses, Eliza, Beauty and the Beast, Noah's Family, The Deer King, as well as Slave, which won the "Karolos Koun" Drama Award in November 2001. In 2001, she was also honored with the children's literature award of the Costas and Eleni Ouranis Foundation. In 2022, she was declared an honorary doctor of the University of Thessaly.

The "Children's Stage" is a theater for children which was founded on October 25, 1972. Until the winter season of 1983-1984, it was housed in the "Athina" theater which is located at the intersection of Patision and Derigny streets in the Pedio tou Areos area. On September 10, 1984, Kalogeropoulou bought the space of the "Odeon" cinema at 59 Mesogeion Avenue in the Ampelokipi area and founded her own theater there which was called "Theatro Porta" and from the winter season of 1984-1985, she performed all the plays she staged there. Since then, the Children's Stage which she had founded was called "Mikri Porta".