Angeliki Papoulia, born in Athens, is an actress and theatre director. She graduated from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Department of Theatre Studies) and the Empros Theatre Drama School in 2000. In 2004, she co-founded the theatre group BLITZ, for which she collaboratively wrote, directed, and performed in productions until 2017. The group presented its work at major festivals and theatres across Europe, including the Festival d’Avignon, Théâtre de la Ville, La Comédie de Reims, Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, Thalia Theater, Barbican Centre, as well as the Athens and Epidaurus Festival, Onassis Cultural Centre, and the National Theatre. Recently, she co-directed a production at Luzerner Theater with Christos Passalis.
As a film actress, she gained international recognition for her role in Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth, which won the Un Certain Regard Prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards (Oscars) in 2011. It was followed by numerous awards at festivals worldwide. For her role in Dogtooth, she was awarded with the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Actress at the Sarajevo Film Festival. She also participated in Yorgos Lanthimos’s Alps, which won the Osella for Best Screenplay at the 2011 Venice Film Festival and Best Film at the Sydney Film Festival in 2012, and in The Lobster which won the Jury Prize at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. She has played in A Blast and in The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea directed by Syllas Tzoumerkas. For her role in The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea, she won the Best Actress Award at the Hellenic Film Academy Awards 2020.
She has also participated in Matchbox directed by Yiannis Economides, Silence 6-9 by Christos Passalis, Human Flowers of Flesh by Helena Wittmann, A Little Love Package by Gaston Solnicki, To a Land Unknown by Mahdi Fleifel, Arcadia by Yorgos Zois, and other feature films.
She has been a jury member of several international film festivals, including Locarno (2016), Sarajevo (2016), Istanbul (2018), Karlovy Vary (2018), Thessaloniki (2019), and the Berlinale (2023).