Kyriaki Karadelis was born in Athens, Greece in 1984 and moved to England with her parents at a tender age. She lived in the town of Bicester, Oxfordshire until the mid-1990s when the family relocated again to the city of Coventry. In 21 years she has yet to acclimatise to British weather.
Going to a comprehensive school in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, Kyriaki’s favourite memories include her stint as Wicked Witch of the West in an amateur theatrical adaptation (ok, a ”school play”) of the Wizard of Oz. She attended Greek school every Saturday for the majority of her formative years, leading to the achievement of an A-level in Modern Greek. Greek school can be credited with teaching her to dance like Zorba, though whether that’s a good thing is yet to be decided.
At Castle Sixth Form Centre she achieved a further four A-levels, managing to perfect the art of late nights at the local indie haunt on a Thursday while still staying awake for double Economics on a Friday afternoon. Her Economics teacher sounded remarkably like William Hague, and could have been a very convincing voice double for a Hollywood film involving the ex Conservative party leader (numerous these films are, I’m sure) .
In 2002 Kyriaki attended Durham University, finishing with a first in Ancient, Medieval and Modern History. In between reading about Roman belly-buttons and inbred European royalty, she found time to be the lead singer of a band that enjoyed some local notoriety – particularly among Durham taxi drivers, who for reasons unknown are allergic to ferrying a drum kit any reasonable distance.
After university #1 she moved south to Bournemouth to take up a job in arts PR and marketing with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. She met some talented people and did some creative things, but it was always her ambition to become a journalist…
So she took the first step in making that a reality in 2007 by starting an MA in Multi-Media Journalism at Bournemouth Uni. Kyriaki was privileged to get a scholarship for this from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and worked hard to land a Distinction in December 2008. She has just received first place in this year’s BJTC awards for a website she made during the course: see Why charity no longer begins at home here.
Kyriaki is currently volunteering at the Kenilworth Weekly News, a Johnston Press newspaper in Warwickshire.
She likes music, hospital radio, thai boxing, skiing, magazines and meeting people.
And hates wallpaper, cockroaches and dates that sometimes look a bit like cockroaches, all squashed up and hibernating in their sticky little oval packet.
