Alfredo Arias was born on March 4, 1944, in Lanús, a small town on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He spent his adolescence in a military boarding school, from which he graduated with the rank of lieutenant. This strict and harsh education did not hinder his artistic vocation.

At the end of the 1960s, he founded his theater company, the TSE Group. At the age of 24, he left Argentina and settled in France. His first French production, Eva Perón, marked the beginning of a long collaboration with his friend, the Argentine writer Copi. In 1977, he adapted Honoré de Balzac’s novella The Ailments of the Heart of an English Cat, using masks in the style of a South American carnival. It was a huge success.

In 1992, he received the Molière Award for Best Musical for Mortadela, in which he recounts his childhood. Several of his other productions are also autobiographical in inspiration. A complete man of the theater, he stages both contemporary and classical works.

He directed the Théâtre de la Commune in Aubervilliers from 1983 to 1990.

Eclectic, he also stages operas, music hall, and musicals. His body of work, very rich and distinctive, is often described as baroque.