Athanasios Karanikolas was born in 1967 in Thessaloniki, Greece. He studied photography at the New School for Social Research in New York, between 1987-1990. He received his Fine Art Degree from the Art Academy in Düseldorf in 1995 and his Directing Diploma from the HFF Konrad Wolf in Potsdam at 2006. He has been living in Berlin since 1998 where he works as a free lance director. Since 2007 he has been teaching film direction and camera acting at the HFF-Konrad Wolf and at the HfS- Ernst Busch Drama School in Berlin.