Welcome to Brazen Careerist!

About Me

I am a Berlin International Film Festival Award-winning writer with fourteen years of professional experience in television, film and print media. I helped launch the most popular drama series in Finnish TV history, created my own mini series, wrote and sold two feature film screenplays, published two books, wrote and co-produced two plays, and scripted one really baffling experimental performance. I also wrote some well received conceptual media art, and founded and edited my own electronic zine. I have worked in localization at Google, organized and produced a large-scale benefit concert, and translated plays, technical documentation and software UIs. I am Finnish-English bilingual, speak Swedish and understand French, German, and some Spanish.

Work History

• Overall Dynamics
• Writer, editor, and translator
• June 2010 to Present

• I write, edit, translate and review. In my free time, I do those same things for fun. My clients include multinational corporations as well as small organizations. I write magazine articles, screenplays, copy and blogs. I translate, review translations, do brand consulting and marketing localization consulting.

• Google
• Language Specialist and External Linguist Manager
• January 2006 to May 2010

• I was the client-side manager for the External Linguist Program, which means that I helped train, motivate, and keep in the loop 120 linguists for 40 languages. Occasionally I was also a detective and a referee.

  At the same time, I was responsible for the language quality of all of Google's Finnish products, reviewing translations, developing glossaries, and defining stylistic standards. I communicated with translators and their team leads from four vendors, as well as with internal product teams, the Finnish country office, and the localization operation, and kept everyone relatively happy.

• Salat Elämät/ FremantleMedia Finland
• Writer/storyliner/senior script editor
• September 1998 to December 2005

• I worked in a team of three Englishmen, two Australians, one New Zealander, two Swedes, and a large number of Finns. We re-developed the Australian hit series Neighbors into Salatut Elämät, the most popular drama program in Finnish television history. As storyliner, I developed season and episode story arcs, new plot twists and characters, and killed off or seriously injured some of the old ones.

  Later I was Senior Script Editor, ensuring continuity and script quality and responding to production realities and challenges, such as an actor suddenly breaking his leg before the big hiking storyline. I led a team of two script editors, twelve episode writers and one script coordinator. It was like herding cats. Luckily, I like cats.

  I also wrote dialogue for an untold number of episodes, I think maybe 20.

• Käenpesä/ HelsinkiFilmi Oy
• Writer
• January 2005 to December 2005

• I wrote 10+ scripts for the weekly drama comedy Käenpesä (Cuckoo's Nest). It was a popular Monday night show on Finland's MTV3 network, about a bunch of 30-somethings who share an apartment and varying degrees of dysfunction.

• Pelkovaara/ FremantleMedia Finland
• Writer/creator
• January 2003 to December 2003

• I developed and wrote Pelkovaara (Home Away), a mini series which aired on Finland’s National Broadcasting Company’s TV1 channel. It was the story of young people in the Finnish military, stuck in a small village in Lapland. It involved particle physics, ionospheric experiments, Satan worship, and a speaking chicken.

• Ota ja Omista/ YLE TV 2
• Writer/script editor
• September 1996 to May 1997

• I script edited the weekly comedy series Ota ja Omista (Take It or Leave It), for Finland’s National Broadcasting Company’s TV2 channel.

  I also wrote 4 episodes.

• Sergein Totuus/ Filmikonttori
• Continuity
• March 1996 to June 1996

• I did continuity for the mini series Sergein Totuus (Sergey’s Truth.) And found the Estonian actor that the hotel had stashed in the wrong room.

• Omar Elvis/ Green Bird
• Screenwriter
• June 1995 to July 1995

• I wrote the script for a documentary film about Omar Elvis, a Palestinian Elvis impersonator who lives in Finland. Really.

• Vampira/ Green Bird
• Production assistant
• January 1995 to May 1995

• I was a jack of all trades on the documentary film Vampira, about the late Maila Nurmi who led a very interesting life while not quite making it in Hollywood.

• HBO Downtown Productions
• Production Intern
• May 1994 to August 1994

• I was the summer intern on several Comedy Channel shows, such as Short Attention Span Theater, Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, and Exit 57. Exit 57 was a sketch comedy show that featured such future stars as Stephen Colbert and Amy Sedaris, not that we knew it then.

Education

• University of Art and Design, Helsinki, Finland
• Master of Arts, Screenwriting/ Department of Film and TV
• 1995 - 1998

• Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
• Bachelor of Science, Mass Communications, Theater
• 1992 - 1994

• University of Turku, Finland
• English, Philosophy, Comparative Literature
• 1989 - 1992