Son of the Cypriot diplomat, poet, and writer Nikos Kranidiotis, he studied law at the University of Athens and continued with postgraduate studies in international relations at Harvard and Sussex University.

Member of the Panhellenic Socialist Party (PASOK) from 1976, he was an advisor on the Cyprus dispute to prime minister Andreas Papandreou from 1981 to 1984.

He held an honorary doctorate in international relations from the Democritus University of Thrace.

On 14th September 1999, Kranidiotis, his son Nikolas, and five other members of a government delegation, died on their way to a six-nation Balkan foreign ministers' regional cooperation meeting in Bucharest.

Their aircraft, a Dassault Falcon 900 presidential jet operated by Olympic Airways, experienced severe in-flight pitch oscillations whilst descending into Bucharest Otopeni Airport, causing those passengers not wearing seat-belts to be thrown around the cabin.