Roope Olenius, a Finnish actor and filmmaker, was born on April 17, 1987, in Pori, Finland. As a first-born of an entrepreneur family, he initially studied business at the University of Applied Sciences of Tampere, but eventually decided to pursue a career in film.
After completing a one-year acting course at the Voionmaa Institute near Tampere in 2010, Olenius moved to New York to further deepen his acting studies at the renowned New York Film Academy. He later transferred to the Los Angeles campus, where he got to study with teachers such as Oscar-nominated Brenda Vaccaro.
Before graduating with his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in acting for screen in 2013, Olenius started writing and producing his own projects. He worked on three intense and starkly realistic short films that he starred in, including "Bro Code" (2013),"Valinnan Vaikeus" (2016),and "Dia-Cide" (2013).
After graduation, Olenius moved back to Finland and pursued work mainly as an actor. He quickly found himself attached in many films and television series, playing roles of all magnitude. One of his most notable roles was as Jari in Joonas Makkonen's "Bunny the Killer Thing" (2015),a horror-comedy that gained international recognition at several genre film festivals.
During the filming of "Bunny the Killer Thing", Olenius met his future spouse, actress Veera W. Vilo. They were later cast together to play siblings in Sami Pöyry's thriller "Punainen kohina" (2021),which they also produced under their production company Bright Fame Pictures.
Olenius' directorial debut film was the hillbilly horror "Tuftland" (2017),which he directed from his own adapted screenplay based on a stage play by Neea Viitamäki. The film starred Veera W. Vilo and brought Olenius several awards, including Best Feature Director at the Other Worlds Austin Sci-fi Film Festival.
In 2019, Olenius started filming his second directorial film, "Free Skate" (2022),a thriller set in the figure skating world. The film was written by Veera W. Vilo and starred distinguished Finnish actors such as Leena Uotila, Karoliina Blackburn, and Jevgeni Haukka.
Before his acting career, Olenius pursued professional careers as an ice-hockey goalkeeper and heavy metal musician. He currently resides in Espoo, Finland with his spouse Veera W. Vilo and their two children.
