He was born in Thurii (in present-day Calabria, Italy) in Magna Graecia and taken early to Athens,[1] where he became a citizen, being enrolled in the deme Oion (Οἶον) and the tribe Leontides.
According to the Suda, a 10th-century encyclopedia, Alexis was the paternal uncle of the dramatist Menander and wrote 245 comedies, of which only fragments now survive, including some 130 preserved titles.
While being a Middle Comic poet, Alexis was contemporary with several leading figures of New Comedy, such as Philippides, Philemon, Diphilus, and even Menander.
Plutarch says that he lived to the age of 106 and 5 months, and that he died on the stage while being crowned victor.
His plays include Meropis, Ankylion, Olympiodoros, Parasitos (exhibited in 360 BC, in which he ridiculed Plato), Agonis (in which he ridiculed Misgolas), and the Adelphoi and the Stratiotes, in which he satirized Demosthenes, and acted shortly after 343 BC.