Jaana E. Saarinen (born 22 June 1955 in Helsinki) is a Finnish actress. She is famous for the Finnish soap opera Salatut elämät, where she played Maarit Salin from 1999 to 2004 and 2007 to 2008. For 25 years, Saarinen was involved with the Kotka City Theatre from 1981 to 2006. She took part in the very first Thilia Thalia competition in 1983 and came third. Hannu Salminen and Tuija Piepponen, representatives of the Kotka City Theatre, won the competition that year.In autumn 2007, Saarinen was up for chair of the Finnish Actors' Union, however she lost the vote to actor Mikko Hänninen of the Tampere Theatre.Saarinen won a Venla award for best actress on 12 January 2007 for her role in the 3-part miniseries Hopeanuolet (Silver Arrows) directed by Auli Mantila.
Is one of the six original cast members who have acted in Salatut Elämät from straight the beginning to this day. The other five are Esko Kovero (Ismo Laitela), Jarmo Koski (Seppo Taalasmaa), Sanna Luostarinen (Elina Taalasmaa), Anu Palevaara (Jenni Vainio) and Piitu Uski (Laura Kiviranta). But only Esko Kovero and Jarmo Koski have acted all the time. Piitu Uski and Anu Palevaara was written out of the series in it's early years for a short period of time because they both had a baby. Their characters also had babies in the series. Jaana Saarinen left the series in 2004 but returned in 2007. Sanna Luostarinen had a short off duty in 2007 which lasted about two months.
$400,000
