Miika Soini was born on 1973 in Rusko, Finland and studied acting and theatre directing at the Turku Arts Academy in Western Finland before turning to cinema. He studied film directing at the Helsinki Film School (University of Art and Design) during which he shot four short films: For the sake of God, Objective Love, Grey Area and Relation. His first feature film, "Thomas" was based on Kjell Askildsen's short stories and had it's international premiere at the San Sebastian Film Festival in 2008. "Thomas" has since toured to over 40 film festivals, winning eight awards, most recently in Italy at the Bergamo Film Meeting 2010. After "Thomas", Soini has been directing TV-series, music videos, commercials and has been writing and developing his next feature films "Broken" and "The King of Harlem".