Giannis Despotakis was born in Athens. He started playing percussion at an early age. He has studied tabla with Satnam Ghai (India) and Nihat Yersaloglu (Turkey), drums with Nikos Kapilidis and electric guitar with Kostas Mouzis. He attended seminars by Joe Zawinul, Lenny White, Rashid Ali, Steve Gadd, Garry Novak, Jeff Berlin, Paul Vertigo, Clarence Penn and Kostas Anastasiadis.

In 2007 he met Hayden Chisholm (NZL) with whom he has been working closely since 2009. Since 2013 he has been working with Antonis Stavrinos with the band Meating for Business.

He teaches at workshops on traditional Mongolian singing (hoomi), vocal release and free experiential improvisation.