Dorina Papaliou was born in Athens. She studied History at Brown University and pursued graduate studies in Social Anthropology at Cambridge University. Her thesis, entitled Politics and Ritual in the Greek Shadow Theatre - a comparative study between Ludruk, the folk Indonesian theatre, and the Greek Karaghiozis - served as the basis for the CD-ROM Karaghiozis: The Magic of Shadow Theatre (Kastaniotis) and the Greek Shadows website.

Her first novel, Gutter (Kedros), was published in 2007 and received laudatory reviews. Gutter has already been optioned for a film by a Greek film director. Her short story "A Study in Green" has been included in the collective volume Names (Kedros).

She has also published the essay Listen to a Story: The Traditional Art of Oral Narrative and its Revival Today (Akritas), as well as children's books, including The Little Prince of the Dusty Planet (Papadopoulos), Orestes and the Enchanted Pot (Papadopoulos), Platon's Secret Recipe (Melani) and When Zorro Ate my Homework (Papadopoulos).