Karalis is currently the Sir Nicholas Laurantus Professor of Modern Greek and Byzantine Studies and Chair of the Modern Greek department at the University of Sydney. He is the editor of the Modern Greek Studies Journal of Australia and New Zealand. He has also edited volumes on modern European political philosophy, especially on Martin Heidegger, Hannah Arendt and Cornelius Castoriadis. His books include Recollections of Mr. Manoly Lascaris (2007), The Demons of Athens (2014), A History of Greek Cinema (2012), Realism and Post-War Greek Cinema (2017) and Reflections on Presence (2017).
For his services, Vrasidas received the Federation Medal from the Federal Government in 2003.
Karalis was born in 1960 in the small town of Krestena in Elis, situated western Peloponnese, Greece and grew in Pireaus. He graduated from the University of Athens in 1983.