Melpo Zarokosta

May 07, 1933

Melpo Zarokosta (Piraeus, May 7, 1933) is a Greek actress. She was born in Piraeus in 1933. She is the daughter of Elias Zarokosta, one of the first Greek actuaries, and Despina Spyropoulou. After the War, she emigrated for a short time to Alexandria, Egypt, and then to Sydney, Australia, where she studied theater at the Metropolitan Theater and at the Canandale School of Radio Studies, directing, screenwriting, and acting. She stayed there for 11 years and began her artistic career in television and theater. She performed in Sydney in Jean Anouilh's Antigone, and also Hecuba in Greek for the Greek community. In 1957, she married her first husband, pianist Andreas Diamantidis, and went with him to London, where they stayed for a year. Due to family obligations, she returned to Greece in 1958. Almost simultaneously with her return to Athens, she began her collaboration with the company of Lambros Konstantaras. There she met her future second husband, also an actor and director, Victor Pagoulatos, with whom she had a son, Alexander. She was involved in translating and adapting plays for theater, radio and television. She wrote her first play, The Women's Tutoring School, in which she co-starred with Dinos Iliopoulos, Nora Valsami and Nikos Apergi. Since then, several of her own plays have been performed in Athens and the province. She was the first female member of the Greek Playwrights' Society since 1960, a member of the Board of Directors. since 1990 and President of the Company from 1999 to 2001.