FINNGATE
FINNGATE is a film, television, and new media production company founded in 2003 by Mikko Alanne and Ari Solomon, committed to telling stories with social impact. Our partners and clients include some of Hollywood's top directors, producers, major studios, and television networks.
MIKKO ALANNE
President
Mikko Alanne is a screenwriter, producer, and showrunner best known for creating the National Geographic Channel's global event series The Long Road Home, based on the bestselling book by Martha Raddatz. The series premiered in 171 countries to universal critical acclaim— it was chosen as the #1 Television Series of the Year by San Francisco Chronicle, won three Imagen Awards, and received a Critics' Choice nomination for Best Limited Series.
Alanne's film and television work has often focused on adaptations of true-life stories. On the feature film front, his writing credits include the Chilean miner rescue epic The 33 starring Antonio Banderas and Juliette Binoche, Mapplethorpe, starring Matt Smith, and the international war correspondent drama 5 Days of War. Alanne has written screenplays for Angelina Jolie, Oliver Stone, and Michael Douglas, as well as some of Hollywood's top producers, including Mike Medavoy, Mark Gordon, and Chuck Roven.
Alanne’s most recent documentary film is The Animal People, which he produced with his Finngate partner Ari Solomon, executive produced by Academy Award-winner Joaquin Phoenix; the film closed and won top honors at the 2019 Santa Monica International Film Festival. Alanne's previous docs include Terror Strikes Moscow, and the acclaimed Voice of Dissent, which caused The Los Angeles Times to call for a reopening of the RFK assassination case.
Previous to his work as a writer and producer, Alanne was a Historical Content Supervisor for Steven Spielberg’s Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, now the USC Shoah Foundation Institute. Alanne is a recipient of the CableFax Showrunner Award and The Christopher Award. In 2018, Variety chose him as one of its Top 10 Global Creatives To Watch.
ARI SOLOMON
Vice President
Development and Production
A native of New Jersey, Ari Solomon graduated with honors from NYU’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts. He worked for several years as a stage and screen actor in New York and Los Angeles.
Before focusing on producing, Solomon also
hosted Ari's Hollywood Update on Miami’s Y-100FM and co-hosted the long-running The Sam Simon Show with the legendary The Simpsons creator on Radio IO.
A prolific writer on human rights, politics, and animal rights, Solomon has appeared on national television and radio to discuss a range of social justice issues, including appearances on CNN, Reuters TV, NPR, and HuffPost Live.