Born Nickolas Konstantin Athanasios Psacharopoulos VII in Athens,[2] he claimed to have organized his first theatrical troupe at age 15 under the Nazi occupation of his homeland.
Three years later he received a Master of Fine Arts Degree in theater direction from the Yale Drama School.
In 1955, he joined the faculty of Yale's undergraduate theater studies department and also taught in the graduate Drama School, where he remained until his death from colon cancer at age 60.
Under Psacharopoulos' leadership, WTF specialized in the plays of Anton Chekhov and Bertolt Brecht, as well as the work of many classic American playwrights such as Tennessee Williams, Thornton Wilder, Arthur Miller, and Archibald MacLeish.
Each year he would choose an assistant from his students at Yale or Circle in the Square NYC, to accompany him to WTF to experience their first seasons as professional directors.