Katerina Varthalitou

Katerina Varthalitou is a Greek Make-up Artist with a long and distinguished career in film, television, advertising and international productions. Working across both contemporary and period projects, her work focuses on creating the visual identity of characters through make-up, while also responding to the specific demands of each production, from naturalistic character work to complex transformations and period detail.Varthalitou has been active in the Greek film and television industry since at least the early 1990s. One of her early credited film appearances in the Make-up Department was on Crystal Nights (1992), followed by an extensive body of work across Greek cinema and television. Her credits include productions such as The Female Company (1999), S.E.X. (2009), Loufa kai Parallagi: Seirines sti Steria (2011), 7 Kinds of Wrath (2014) and Free Subject (2018).Her work has received recognition from the Hellenic Film Academy. Varthalitou won the Academy Award for Best Make-up for To Gala in 2012 and again for Notias in 2017, establishing her among the recognized make-up professionals working in Greek cinema.Her career has also extended into productions with an international profile. She worked as a Make-up Artist on The Lost Daughter (2021), Maggie Gyllenhaal's feature film starring Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley and Dakota Johnson, and was also part of the Make-up Department of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022), the internationally produced sequel directed by Rian Johnson. Her work on these productions placed her within large international teams working across locations in Greece.Varthalitou has continued to work on international and independent productions filmed in Greece. In Swimming Home (2024), the feature directed by Justin Anderson and based on Deborah Levy's novel, she was credited as Make-up Designer, taking a leading role in defining the characters' make-up and overall appearance.She has also collaborated extensively with Greek filmmakers and production companies on feature films, short films and television projects. Her credits include N' Me for Myself, directed by Georgis Grigorakis, where she was responsible for Make-up and worked alongside Special Make-up Effects Artist Brian Wade. The film went on to have an extensive international festival run, including screenings at festivals in Venice, Toulouse, Lille, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sapporo and Barcelona.Her work extends beyond narrative cinema into commercials and short-form productions. She has contributed to advertising campaigns including Lacta – Memories, directed by Argyris Papadimitropoulos, and has worked on numerous commercial and audiovisual productions as a Make-up Artist.Her more recent collaborations include a number of Tanweer Productions projects. On Stelios, directed by Giorgos Tsemperopoulos, she was responsible for Make-up, working alongside Hair Stylist Hronis Tzimos and Costume Designer Maria Kontodima. The film was produced by Tanweer Productions and co-produced with COSMOTE TV and other partners.She also worked on The Suitcase, the 2026 Tanweer Productions comedy directed by Dimitris Papathanasis, where she was responsible for Make-up. The production reunited her with several members of the creative team with whom she had collaborated on other recent projects.For Rififi, the COSMOTE TV / Tanweer Productions crime series directed by Sotiris Tsafoulias, Varthalitou served as the Make-up Artist. She was part of the principal creative team alongside Production Designer Mihalis Samiotis, Art Director Myrto Daskaroli and Costume Designer Agis Panagiotou. The official Magenta TV production credits list her specifically under Make-up, while the Thessaloniki International Film Festival also credits her for the series.Her collaboration with Tanweer continued with Last Call, the 2025 thriller directed by Sherif Francis. Varthalitou was responsible for Make-up, working alongside Hair Stylist Sotiris Paterakis and the film's wider production design and costume departments.Beyond conventional Make-up work, Varthalitou has also participated in projects involving special make-up effects and has been invited to contribute to professional events focused on make-up and special effects. In 2019, for example, she participated in the Film Factory programme of the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation in a session dedicated to natural and digital special effects.Across more than three decades of work, Katerina Varthalitou has built a career that connects Greek cinema with major international productions. Her filmography ranges from early Greek television and independent cinema to award-winning national productions, international features and contemporary streaming projects. Her two Hellenic Film Academy awards and her participation in productions such as The Lost Daughter, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Swimming Home, Stelios, Last Call and Rififi reflect the breadth of her experience and her long-standing contribution to the visual character of film and television productions.