Irina Björklund (born February 7, 1973 in Danderyd, Sweden) is a Finnish actress.
She has acted in movies and in television series. Some well known movies include Rukajärven tie (int. Ambush), Levottomat (int. Restless), Minä ja Morrison (int. Me and Morrison), and Vieraalla Maalla (int. Land of Love). Björklund is married to Peter Franzén, who is a Finnish actor. In September 2007, Björklund gave birth to their first child, a boy.
Björklund moved to the United States in 1999. She currently lives in Los Angeles together with her husband. She used to dance ballet and dreamed about professional ballet career but had to stop at the age of 14 due problems with her joints. She was born in Sweden but moved to Finland at the age of 1. She has also lived in France during her early years.
She fluently speaks Finnish, Swedish, French, English and also some Russian, and Spanish, and counts musical saw playing among her hobbies. She studied in the Theatre Academy of Finland from 1993 to 1996. She left the school when Svenska Teatern (Swedish theatre in Helsinki) hired her.
In 1999 she was awarded the Jussi prize for best leading actress in her role as Milla in the movie Minä ja Morrison. She made her breakthrough through the movie Rukajärven tie where she played lotta Kaarina Vainikainen. She was awarded the Shooting Star prize in the Berlin Film Festival in 2004.
Born in 1973, Irina Björklund is one of the most popular Finnish film stars of the end of 1990s and beginning of the 2000s. After studying years 1993-1996 in The Theatre Academy of Finland she made her silver screen debut in Pekka Parikka's (director of "Talvisota") last film, "Tie naisen sydämeen". Another actor on the film was Peter Franzén who become her husband in the same year. Björklund's first big film role was in "Rukajärven tie" (1999), a highly popular Finnish war movie based on Antti Tuuri's novel. Björklund's husband Franzen was in the leading male role, Björklund made leading female role. She was nominated for Best Actress in Jussi Awards. Jussi Awards is the biggest Finnish movie awards, like the Oscars are in the USA. Björklund made her Hollywood debut in low budget horror movie "The Dummy" (2000), but returned in Finland to make Levottomat (2000) and "Minä ja Morrison" (2001), both highly popular movies. She won Best Actress prize in Jussi Awards for her performance in "Minä ja Morrison". After that she has been working in Europe and Hollywood, but still her biggest roles has been in Finnish films: "Honey Baby" (2003) and "Vieraalla maalla" (2003).
