Lefteris Papagiannakis was born in France in 1971. He completed his primary and secondary education in Greece. He returned to France to study public law in the University of Lille II, followed by a DEA in European Community Law and International Economy. He worked at the European Parliament (1996-1999), at the information website e-go.gr (2001-2002), and in the education programme for children of the muslim minority in Thrace as head of the programme centres (2003-2006). Since 2007 he has been employed by the University of Athens and was seconded as a legal counselor for the political party Ecologists Green and the Special Secretariat on Environmental Inspection (Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change). He was elected in the municipal council of Athens in 9/2014, he was president of the Council for the Integration of Migrants of the Municipality of Athens and named vice mayor on migrant and refugee affairs in 3/2016. He was head of Advocacy, Research and Policy of SolidarityNow (2019-2021). Currently, he is Director of the Greek Council for Refugees.