Hey, I’m Niki, a bicultural (English-Greek) screenwriter and author. I managed to get through difficult situations in life, personal and family crises, and two country crises (the Greek crisis and Brexit) as well as the Greek wildfires at Ancient Olympia in 2021. Gerhard Richter said that Art is the ultimate form of Hope. I write inspiring hero’s journeys, weaving the hero's journey with the hero's emotional journey, in short and long-form stories to convey hope, balance, assimilation and catharsis. 

Niki Lambropoulos

Author / Screenwriter

Niki Lambropoulos is a writer and screenwriter born in Ancient Olympia, Greece. She studied Creative Writing, the History of Contemporary Art, and Screenwriting at the University of the Arts London, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, the University of East Anglia, and with Robert McKee in Los Angeles. She holds a BA and Diploma in Education, an MA in Digital Humanities from the Institute of Education, University College London (UCL), and a PhD in Digital Humanities from London South Bank University. Niki is the editor of two books and the author of ten novels and short-story collections, as well as three monographs on creative storytelling and narrative theory. She teaches Creative Storytelling at the University of Patras in Greece and has published widely in her research field. She has written and produced two short films, and her first feature film is currently in production for 2026. Her body of work spans short stories, novels, stage plays, and screenplays, and has earned international awards and recognition.

Η Νίκη Λαμπροπούλου είναι συγγραφέας και σεναριογράφος και διδάσκει Δημιουργική Γραφή και Αφήγηση ως ΕΔΙΠ στο Τμήμα Επιστημών της Εκπαίδευσης και Κοινωνικής Εργασίας στο Πανεπιστήμιο Πατρών. Έχει γεννηθεί στο Πελόπιο Αρχαίας Ολυμπίας, όπου ο πατέρας της είχε ένα από τα πρώτα ανοιχτά σινεμά στη Δυτική Ελλάδα. Έχει τελειώσει την Ακαδημία Τρίπολης (1986) με εξομοίωση του πτυχίου της στο ΠΤΔΕ και Δίπλωμα στο Μαράσλειο Διδασκαλείο του Εθνικού Καποδιστριακού Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών (1998, 1999). Έχει Μάστερ στις Ψηφιακές Ανθρωπιστικές Επιστήμες από το Institute of Education, University College London (2002), Διδακτορικό στο ίδιο θέμα από το London South Bank University (2008), όπου κατόπιν έκανε μεταδιδακτορική έρευνα Marie Curie με χρηματοδότηση της Ε.Ε (2011). Έχει πιστοποίηση Ιστορίας της Σύγχρονης Τέχνης από το Sotheby’s Institute of Art (1999), δημιουργικής γραφής/αφήγησης από το Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London, (2000), Γλώσσας Προγραμματισμού Τεχνητής Νοημοσύνης Artificial Intelligence Markup Language (A.I.M.L.) από το ALICE Artificial Intelligence Foundation, Los Angeles (2003), και τέλος σεναριογραφίας από τον Robert McKee, το University of East Anglia, στη Μ. Βρετανία (2017), το ScreenwritingU και το International Screenwriters’ Association (ISA) στο Λος Άντζελες (2018). Ως συγγραφέας έχει γράψει μικρές ιστορίες, θεατρικά έργα και μυθιστορήματα, 6 βιβλία/μονογραφίες, εκ των οποίων 3 για τη δημιουργική γραφή/αφήγηση στην Ελλάδα και τη Μ. Βρετανία, καθώς και μεγάλο αριθμό άρθρων σε ελληνικά και διεθνή περιοδικά και συνέδρια. Ως σεναριογράφος και κινηματογραφική παραγωγός έχει γυρίσει 2 ταινίες μικρού μήκους (2024) και είναι σε παραγωγή μια μεγάλου μήκους (2026). Τα σενάριά της έχουν κερδίσει διεθνή βραβεία και αναγνώριση και είναι μέλος των Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB), Women in Film and Television - Greece (WIFT-GR) και της Ένωσης Σεναριογράφων Ελλάδος. 

My voice

I write original high concepts; exceptional characters actively engaged in emotional journeys; opening imagery in a preamble of sets, genre, tone, and theme; imaginative and filled with cinematic visuals that will be strong on a screen; parallel worlds with multiverse elements and transitions; the big is in the small, and the universal in the specific, engaging the international audience.

• I explore transgenerational trauma, family legacy, and personal transformation, often rooted in historical or socio-political contexts merged with fiction. My stories blend deep emotional insight with an awareness of the cultural, historical, or spiritual forces that shape my characters. 

• I champion female protagonists who break cycles of abuse, claim agency, and often initiate transformative journeys. My voice reverberates with mythic structure, archetypes, and a clear reverence for ancestral wisdom, yet always grounded in the complexity of human experience.

• My bicultural background (Greek/British) enriches my voice with cultural depth and a lyrical quality, often weaving between languages, worlds, and periods. There's a poetic economy to my dialogue and a cinematic sensibility that reflects my screenwriting craft, where emotion, symbol, and image work together seamlessly.

• Whether working in historical fiction, dramas, fantasy, or contemporary stories, my character-driven stories lead the characters and the audience toward healing, revelation, and empowerment. I'm not afraid to tackle dark, systemic issues, but always with a redemptive arc that reclaims hope and identity.

One might argue that the urgency and necessity of my writing stems from the same context that gave rise to the emergence of unique and unconventional Greek cinema, exemplified by filmmakers like Yorgos Lanthimos and Athina Rachel Tsangari, known as the Greek Weird Wave. I had to navigate through difficult situations, including personal and family crises (with seven family members succumbing to Covid, including my beloved father), two national crises (the Greek crisis and Brexit), as well as the Greek wildfires at Ancient Olympia in 2007 and 2021. No aspect of life is immune to catastrophic developments. 

Through various media, I reflect on the influence and struggle to persist in creating amidst adversity, viewing it as the ultimate act of hope. Themes of biopolitics, derived from Michel Foucault's philosophy, explore the regulation of human life by the state, echoing power dynamics. Dimitris Papanikolaou, the author of the book "Greek Weird Wave: A Cinema of Biopolitics," emphasizes that it is the crisis itself that unveiled the social, cultural, and power dynamics leading to its utilisation. Lanthimos is regarded as the pioneer of this emerging movement, continuing to produce films that embody the distinctive traits of "weird" cinematography, as evidenced in his seminal 2009 urban dystopia. These traits include oppressive familial and societal systems mirroring socio-political reality, themes predominantly focused on biopower, feelings of claustrophobia, social isolation, and enclosed spaces, among others. 

As a screenwriter, I specialise in writing stories about underdogs and misfits, individuals who perpetually struggle due to their own flawed decisions deeply ingrained in their background, culture, society, and personality traits, yet persistently rise despite their setbacks. This parallels another connection between the new Greek cinematic movement and ancient tragedy: individuals who are too powerless to shape their destinies, are condemned to navigate a society governed by rules and laws imposed by superior entities. The distinction lies in the fact that it is no longer the Gods dictating fate, but rather a faceless, detached system of power and governance. For similar reasons, this effort intertwines the hero's journey with their emotional journey, exploring the universality of these themes. Medea, for instance, denies Jason the right to mourn by murdering her children and concealing their bodies where he could never find them—an ultimate act of vengeance. The quintessential archive of a perennial past, the enduring legacy of ancient drama sets an imposing standard for all.

Biography

My name is Niki Lambropoulos. I grew up in Ancient Olympia, the place where the Olympic Games were born, which exposed me to a conflicting environment where ancient civilisation meets the colourful, bizarre, and sometimes, prejudice, and nepotism. As my dad owned the first open-air cinema in Western Greece, I was happy being immersed in the pictures. My studies and work as a Digital Humanities researcher in Athens, London, Paris, and Barcelona, and my world travels led me to write stories of the underdogs, the misfits, all those who struggle to get ahead, always tripped up by their own bad decisions deeply rooted in their background and personality traits, who fall and stand up as many times as needed. 

My specialisation equips me uniquely as a genre screenwriter to write exciting character ensembles in science-fiction, fantasy action-adventure as well as drama and live-action/animation. My writing conveys the meaning and emotion of the story via interesting and relatable characters, powerful emotional rollercoasters, modern storytelling structures, as well as awareness and experience of diverse social structures and worlds, connecting humanity into personal and emotional stories. I merge history and past with present, reality, and future in the way we experience them. 

After 15 years of living, studying, and working in London, I went back to Greece to have more time for writing and filmmaking. But that world reacted unexpectedly, triggering old traumas, provoking forces, and creating stories waiting to be told.   

My stories have acquired several international awards and accolades. I now teach creative storytelling at the University of Patras in Western Greece and produce films engaging in several filmmaking stages.