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.
She starred in two Auli Mantila films, Neitoperho (1997) and Pelon maantiede (1999), and most recently in Simo Halinen's film Open Up to Me (2013) in which she is portraying a woman who has just gone through a sex reassignment surgery.