Anniken Lien was born in Oslo, Norway and trained as a fine artist. She studied at Parson’s School of Art in Paris, the Art League of New York, Scuola Lorenzo de’ Medici in Florence and at the Royal Academy of Arts in Oslo, where she earned her master’s degree. She then studied filmmaking at the London International Film School.

After graduating, Anniken directed three short films which were immediately broadcast on national television in Norway. That landed her a directing position at MTV Scandinavia and through it she directed videos for numerous local artists. She leveraged that success to build a career as a commercial director. She has earned numerous awards for her commercials, including Epica and European Directors Club awards for her work for Fenjal and Kangaroo. Her spot Drink for the Norwegian Pollution Control was short-listed at Cannes. Her credits also include Volkswagen, Nivea, Kraft Foods, L’Oreal, Nestle and Lego, that latter a 5-spot campaign for the U.S., U.K., German, Scandinavian, French and Italian markets.