Vincent Willestrand
- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Vincent Willestrand was born Kimi Vilkkula on January 24, 1988 in Helsinki, Finland. He spent his early years in Russia, Finland, and the United States before moving to the United Kingdom to study film and acting.
After a year of studying film in Brighton, Willestrand moved to London to train as an actor at Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance. His training at Rose Bruford was rooted in the work and methods of Konstantin Stanislavsky, Michael Chekhov, and Jerzy Grotowski. This led him to train and work with the Polish theatre company Song of the Goat under the guidance of artistic director Grzegorz Bral, Gabriel Gawin, and Niamh Dowling. He appeared as Hamlet in Bral’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy. Following its London run, the production was invited to the Gdańsk Shakespeare Festival in Poland.
Willestrand reached a wider screen audience in 2017 with his role as Sihvonen in Aku Louhimies’ war drama Unknown Soldier. The film set an all-time box-office admissions record for a Finnish film and was, at the time of its release, the most expensive production in Finnish cinema history. He went on to work with Aleksi Mäkelä on 95, portraying Finnish ice hockey player Janne Niinimaa, and with JP Siili on Veljeni vartija as Finnish rapper Brädi.
He later played Nikolai Laakkonen, a main antagonist in the two-part second season finale of Bordertown, the first Finnish series to appear on Netflix.
His later credits span Finnish and international productions. He worked with Jalmari Helander on Sisu alongside Jorma Tommila, Aksel Hennie, and Jack Doolan. His work in Polish cinema includes Michał Kwieciński’s Miłość jest wszystkim. He went on to play Leon in E. L. Katz’s Azrael, written by Simon Barrett and starring Samara Weaving. In 2024, he reunited with Aku Louhimies on Conflict, appearing alongside Peter Franzén. In 2026, Willestrand appears in the Starz series Fightland, executive produced by Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, with Otto Bathurst and Sebastian Thiel among the directors.
After a year of studying film in Brighton, Willestrand moved to London to train as an actor at Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance. His training at Rose Bruford was rooted in the work and methods of Konstantin Stanislavsky, Michael Chekhov, and Jerzy Grotowski. This led him to train and work with the Polish theatre company Song of the Goat under the guidance of artistic director Grzegorz Bral, Gabriel Gawin, and Niamh Dowling. He appeared as Hamlet in Bral’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy. Following its London run, the production was invited to the Gdańsk Shakespeare Festival in Poland.
Willestrand reached a wider screen audience in 2017 with his role as Sihvonen in Aku Louhimies’ war drama Unknown Soldier. The film set an all-time box-office admissions record for a Finnish film and was, at the time of its release, the most expensive production in Finnish cinema history. He went on to work with Aleksi Mäkelä on 95, portraying Finnish ice hockey player Janne Niinimaa, and with JP Siili on Veljeni vartija as Finnish rapper Brädi.
He later played Nikolai Laakkonen, a main antagonist in the two-part second season finale of Bordertown, the first Finnish series to appear on Netflix.
His later credits span Finnish and international productions. He worked with Jalmari Helander on Sisu alongside Jorma Tommila, Aksel Hennie, and Jack Doolan. His work in Polish cinema includes Michał Kwieciński’s Miłość jest wszystkim. He went on to play Leon in E. L. Katz’s Azrael, written by Simon Barrett and starring Samara Weaving. In 2024, he reunited with Aku Louhimies on Conflict, appearing alongside Peter Franzén. In 2026, Willestrand appears in the Starz series Fightland, executive produced by Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, with Otto Bathurst and Sebastian Thiel among the directors.
