Laura Birn

Laura Eveliina Birn is a Finnish actress born in Helsinki, 25 April 1981. Her big onscreen debut took place in 2002 when she starred in the Finnish feature film Helmiä ja Sikoja, directed by Perttu Leppä. She was nominated for best supporting actress at the Finnish film awards (Jussi Awards) for her first film role. The same year she started her acting studies in Helsinki Theatre Academy. While studying Birn worked in films and theatre. She played the leading female role in 4 feature films - The Promise, The Christmas Story, 8 Days to Premiere, Rally on and several TV series including Jumalan kaikki oikut, 3 suudelmaa, Karjalan kunnailla, Suojelijat, Morsian, and Virta.

On stage, she played both in Helsinki and Barcelona during those years. Her breakthrough performance was in the Finnish drama play Sydänmaa in Helsinki City Theatre in 2005­/2006. After graduating in 2008 with an MA, she has continued working in both theatre and film.

Her more recent work includes two successful Finnish feature films Naked Harbour and Purge. Purge was Finland's entry for the Oscars 2012. The film also won her a nomination for best leading actress at the Golden Satellite Awards and the Jussi Awards. The same year, her performance in Naked Harbour, an episode film about multicultural suburbia in Helsinki as an unstable drug addicted girl, also won her a nomination for best supporting actress at the Jussi Awards.

In 2013 Laura Birn appeared in Scott Frank's feature A Walk Among The Tombstones and the controversial film about neo­nazism, Heart of a Lion, directed by Dome Karukoski. Birn was awarded the prestigious Shooting Star Award at the Berlin Film Festival 2013. During the spring of 2014, Laura shot the historical drama Girl King directed by Mika Kaurismäki and the finnish feature Henkesi Edestä by Petri Kotwica.

Icon Film Distr./Lionsgate UK