Lia (Hadzopoulou ) Karavia was born in Athens. She studied Classical Literature at the University of Athens, 1972, defended her Ph.D. of Comparative. Literature, Sorbonne, in 1992 on “The Erinyes on Stage in the Family of the Atreides: Aeschylus, The Oresteia, J. Giraudoux, Electra; J. P. Sartre, The Flies; T. S. Eliot, The Family Reunion". published by Editions Universitaires Européennes in 2018. She studied English Literature, French, German Russian, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese.

She followed Theatre Studies, taught History of the Theatre and has directed the Theatrical Workshop of N. Smyrni since-1984. She was President of the International Playwrights' Forum of the ITI (UNESCO) 2000-2006 and President of its Jury.
She is the author of 84 books (poetry, books for the young, novels, plays, essays). Several were translated into English, French, Flemish, Spanish, Catalan, German, Armenian. Turkish, Serbian, Polish, Croatian, Rumanian, Bengali of S. India, and Sami of the Arctic Circle. Several were awarded prizes: three of her plays received National Prizes in 1989, 1990, 1991.
She was also awarded prizes as an actress at the Ithaca Festivals of 1977 & 1978, and as a translator in 2003. Four of her novels were adapted for TV series based on her own scripts. Her poetry is included in Greek and foreign anthologies and was published in a volume "Fifty, 1956-2006” by ed. Gavrielides. The Cénacle Européen awarded her the Poetry Prize Léopold Senghor 2009, Paris, in June 2009.
She wrote the Foreword and lectured in Catalan at the University Jaume I on Maria Iordanidou’s Loxandra in 2009. She organised Theatre Research Congresses in Greece, 1996, 1998, 2000.
The Nea Smyrni Municipality awarded her the Golden Medal of the City in 2008.
She acted her monodrama “Prison” in several countries. “Prison” and “Refugee”, translated into French by Michèle Duclos, got ARDUA Prize, Bordeaux, 2008. “Refugee” was presented in the RETIC Festival in Cameroon in October 2008 and Kareyce Moto Fotso got Best Actress Prize for the role and was also won by Adèe Nguile Fezcu in 2015 & 2016.

"Juan" and "Prison" were presented in the CICACK Festival, Cameroon, in November 2009. "Prison" was translated into Sami by Sara Margrethe Oskal ("Giddagasas") and was presented at the Sami National Theatre, Kautekeino, N. Norway, with English overtitles, with Anitta Suikkari as Nina. The writer was at the opening night, 12 November 2010, and followed the group on its tour of "Prison" at the International Theatre Festival of Kathmandu, Nepal, 5 December 2010, and the Shilpakala Theatre, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 7-8 December 2010.
It was also presented in the Stamsund Theatre Festival, Norway, May 2011. She gave a lecture in Spanish at Fundación Maria Tsakos, Montevideo, 25 October 2012 on the 90 th anniversary of the expulsion of Greeks from Pontos and Asia Minor, her parents' birthplaces. At Poquelin Theatre, Bordeaux, she saw a preview of “My Late Husband” in June 2013, translated into French by Rome Deguergue, with Aude Colin as Maria, and directed by Jean-Claude Meymerit. The play premiered there in November 2013.
In March 2019 her Theatre Workshop presented Exupery's "The Little Prince" in her own theatre version.