Veera Ikonen

Veera Ikonen is an award-winning journalist, screenwriter, producer & director with a passion for understanding humanity and peace.

Ikonen’s focus has been to create an impact for social change through humane and meaningful storytelling. As a producer for the weekly talk show Maria! (Finnish commercial TV-Channel 4), she was at the forefront in championing strong and unapologetic female voices on National Primetime TV. This continued with the politically fearless comedy Märät säpikkäät, which Veera produced and co-wrote with the show’s indigenous Sami presenters and activists, challenging audiences to question their stereotypical, narrow views of the indigenous Sami culture, and of Sami women specifically.

Both shows were shortlisted for the National Finnish Venla -TV Awards, as was the documentary reality show Kakola––an acclaimed but controversial social intervention format that challenged troubled youth to change their lives by offering professional and peer support in the prison environment.

Ikonen went on to produce and co-write the documentary film The Unknown Refugee (Dir. Hamy Ramezan, 2016), which followed the experience of Syrian and Afghan refugees arriving in Europe in 2015. The film rose above polarizing debates and a tense political climate when it won the main prize and audience award at the Tampere Film Festival. Ikonen’s own radio documentary Olga - refugee 1918 (Dir. Veera Ikonen, 2018), told a similar story surrounding the impact of war and violence, only set a hundred years earlier. Her documentary won the main prize at the annual Koura Awards––the largest monetary prize in its field in Finland.

In 2016, Ikonen left traditional media production at ITV Studios and started at Gutsy Media––eager to channel her experience towards concept development and storytelling for creating real-life social change, building peace, and developing youth-centered community initiatives. She is the Managing Director at Gutsy Go.