Gela Charkviani who worked as an ambassador of Georgia in the UK, lived in Tbilisi, Georgia.

He was a prominent Georgian diplomat, author, teacher, television host, and expert in American and British Studies.

Gela Charkviani was born on 1 March 1939, in Tbilisi, Georgia. His father was Candide Charkviani, a leader of the Georgian Communist Party, and his mother was an ophthalmologist Tamar Jaoshvili.

He was married to Nana Toidze-Charkviani. The couple had a son and two daughters. Their son Irakli Charkviani was an approved Georgian musician and writer.

Gela Charkviani studied architecture at the Georgian Technical University; later he graduated from the Ilia Chavchavadze Institute of Foreign Languages. During his post-graduate studies, Gela Charkviani spent a term at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1970. This period is regarded as the peak of the Youth Revolution in the United States. Gela Charkviani believed the time spent in Ann Arbor significantly influenced his worldview.

Gela Charkviani had a 25-year work experience as a teacher of English at the Ilia Chavchavadze Foreign Languages Institute and as a teacher of sociology at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University.

From 1976 to 1994, he hosted a monthly TV program Globe on the Georgian broadcasting company, featuring profiles of the world nations. In 2004 his documentary series Georgians in the Kremlin was released in five episodes, and aired from September through October on Rustavi-2, a Georgian TV broadcaster.

From 1984 to 1992, Gela Charkviani was a vice-president of the Georgian Society for Cultural Relations.

From 1992 to 2003, he served as a senior advisor for foreign policy to President Eduard Shevardnadze.

In 2006, Gela Charkviani served as Ambassador of Georgia to the UK and Ireland. He retired from diplomatic service in September 2011.

He was a man of many hobbies and interests. However, music held the central position throughout his life. In 2004, a CD of his piano miniatures was released. In 2006, a CD of the musical «Nargiza and the Nonstop Luxury Express» (1974) was released. One of his latest works was «Irakliana» – a triptych of three piano suites, featuring themes by his late son Irakli.

Gela Charkviani translated Shakespeare's King Lear into Georgian. His work was staged by the internationally noted Georgian theatre director Robert Sturua and had great success at the Rustaveli Drama Theatre in Tbilisi in the 1980s and 1990s. It was also performed at various venues in different countries.

In the summer of 2008, Gela Charkviani's public speeches from 1997 to 2008 were published in English. The book covered many significant issues for the newly independent nations in Eurasia and provided vital suggestions for the current state of affairs in the region.

In 2013, the publishing house «Artanuji» released Gela Charkviani’s new book «An Interview with My Dad», constructed as a dialogue between father and son, who belong to different generations and have different beliefs and values. The text is based on actual conversations from 1989 to 1992. Candide Charkviani, already over 80 by then, was the only person alive who witnessed and was personally involved in the relations between Stalin’s Kremlin and the Soviet Republic of Georgia. «Artanuji» published several editions of the book that sold out. In 2016, the book was translated into Italian and published by «Palombi Editori» as La dimensione Georgiana di Stalin.

Gela Charkviani’s next book «Nagerala» (Self-sown seedlings) was a collection of notes he had written for over twenty years. In 2014, the publishing house «Intellect» released the first edition of this book. The second edition became Georgia’s National Bestseller #2 in 2015.