Manolis Mavrommatis is a Greek

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 politician and Member of the European Parliament

Member of the European Parliament

A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...

 for New Democracy

New Democracy (Greece)

New Democracy is the main centre-right political party and one of the two major parties in Greece. It was founded in 1974 by Konstantinos Karamanlis and formed the first cabinet of the Third Hellenic Republic...

, belonging to the European People's Party

European People's Party

The European People's Party is a pro-European centre-right European political party. The EPP was founded in 1976 by Christian democratic parties, but later it increased its membership to include conservative parties and parties of other centre-right perspectives.The EPP is the most influential of...

.

Born in Platanias

Platanias

Platanias is a village and municipality on the Greek island of Crete. It is located about west from the city of Chania and east of Kastelli-Kissamos, on Chania Bay. The seat of the municipality is the village Gerani. Platanias is a popular tourism village with a beach, several hotels, restaurants...

, Crete

Crete

Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...

, he studied sociology in the University of Rome

University of Rome La Sapienza

The Sapienza University of Rome, officially Sapienza – Università di Roma, formerly known as Università degli studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a coeducational, autonomous state university in Rome, Italy...

, as well as Cinema, Theater and Radio techniques. He started off as a director for short-films and documentaries and moved on directing theatrical acts for the radio as well as for the stage. In 1975 he started working as a sports journalist, covering all major sports events (Olympic Games, FIFA World Cup, UEFA European Championship etc.) up until his election to the European Parliament in 2004.

He is married to actress Rena Venieri and has a son, Michael Mavrommatis.