Ilias Karkavelias was born in Athens. He started classical piano lessons at the age of 4. At the age of 13 he continued with studying the electric with Thanasis Gourounas and then with Thodoris Botinis. While studying he started performing at his 15 with various rock, pop and soul groups.

Then he became a member of the Sera Bellos Quartet while also participating in live performances in Athens. He is also a member of the family group Karkavelias Trio, the other member of which are his brothers Alexandros and Dimitris.

In 2017 he started playing with Penny Baltatzi and the Kabasele / Karkavelias / Benetatos Trio. He has collaborated with Thodoris Kotsifas, Yiannis Papanastasiou, Spyros Manesis, Thanos Hatzianagnostou, Andreas Papagianakopoulos, Edgar Sabillo and more.