Juha Hurme was born in the town of Paimio in Finland. He earned a degree in biology. Since the 1990s he has written and staged plays and published several novels. Hurme is considered one of the most innovative directors and playwriters in Finland. In 2006 he won the Eino-Leino prize for his staging of classics, the Jarkko-Laine prize for his novel Nyljetyt ajatukset (Skinned Thoughts) in 2014, as well as the most important theatre prize in Finland, the Eino-Kalima prize. In 2017, he was awarded the Finlandia prize for his novel Niemi (The Peninsula).