Tommy Wirkola

Wirkola is of Sami-Finnish^[3] and Kven^[4] ancestry.

His first film was 2007's Kill Buljo, which he co-wrote with Stig Frode Henriksen.^[5] They later collaborated on the 2009 horror comedy Dead Snow,^[6] the 2010 mockumentary Kurt Josef Wagle and the Legend of the Fjord Witch,^[7] and the 2014 sequel to Dead Snow, Red vs. Dead.^[8][9]

In 2012 Wirkola directed & produced the television comedy series Hellfjord. Consisting of seven thirty minute episodes, the series is about an Oslo police officer who is banished to a small village after accidentally killing his police horse.^[10]

Wirkola's first English-language, large-budget film, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, was released in 2013 to mainly negative reviews. Starring Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton, the film was nevertheless a financial success, grossing $226.3 million worldwide on a budget of $50 million.^[11][12]

What Happened to Monday, a science fiction film starring Noomi Rapace and Willem Dafoe, and the dark comedy The Trip, also starring Rapace, were released in 2017 and 2021 respectively.

Wirkola's next film, Violent Night, a dark comedy starring David Harbour as a vigilante Santa Claus, was released in December 2022.^[13] The film received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $76.6 million worldwide.^[14]

Wirkola co-directed the 2024 animated musical sex comedy Spermageddon, a dual narrative focusing on both a teenage couple having sex for the first time and Simen the Semen and his friends in a quest for the Egg.^[15]

In May 2024, it was announced that Wirkola had signed with Columbia Pictures to develop a survival thriller titled Beneath the Storm, with Phoebe Dynevor cast in the lead role.^[16] That August, principal photography began in Australia, with Whitney Peak and Djimon Hounsou joining the cast.^[17] In March 2025, the film was renamed Shiver.^[18]

Acting roles