Dome Karukoski

Thomas August George Dome Karukoski (born 1976‑12‑29 in Nicosia, Cyprus) is a Finnish film director whose career has reshaped contemporary Finnish cinema. After moving to Finland at age five, he endured a difficult childhood marked by bullying, an experience that later fueled his advocacy against school harassment. In 1999 he entered the University of Art and Design Helsinki as one of only three new directing students, despite having never handled a camera before. His breakthrough came with the debut feature Beauty and the Bastard (2005), a vibrant portrait of Finnish youth that screened at Berlin and Tribeca and earned the Amanda award for best Nordic debut. Subsequent films such as The Home of Dark Butterflies (2008) and Forbidden Fruit (2009) reinforced his reputation, garnering multiple Jussi nominations and representing Finland for the Nordic Council Film Prize and the Academy Awards. Karukoski’s 2010 comedy Lapland Odyssey became the top‑grossing Finnish film of that year, out‑earning major Hollywood releases and securing four Finnish National Film Awards, including Best Film and Best Director. He continued to push boundaries with Heart of a Lion (2013), a daring exploration of neo‑Nazi love, and The Grump (2014), a tragicomic adaptation that entered the top‑three Finnish box‑office earners of the past quarter‑century. Internationally, he directed the biopic Tom of Finland (2017) and the 2019 war‑era drama Tolkien, proving his versatility across genres and markets.

Beyond his films, Karukoski is a beloved media personality, frequently invited to Finnish radio and television talk shows, and was honored with an invitation to the 2009 Independence Day Reception by President Tarja Halonen. Variety listed him among its 10 Directors to Watch in 2013—the first Finnish filmmaker ever to receive that distinction—and he remains the only director nominated for Best Director for each of his first six features at the Jussi Awards. His personal life has been publicly discussed; he married long‑time partner Nadia in 2013, with whom he has two children, Oliver and Isabel, before their divorce was announced in 2023. His multicultural heritage includes a Finnish‑Swedish mother, journalist Ritva Karukoski, and an American father, actor George Dickerson, whom he met at fourteen.