Yrjö Antero Karilas (3 January 1891 – 7 June 1982) was a Finnish writer. He is most known for his Pikkujättiläinen book series.
Yrjö Karilas was born at Hailuoto on 3 January 1891. He passed his Matriculation examination in 1908. In 1911, he started teaching Russian at Helsinki. After the language was removed from the curriculum, he became an office employee at WSOY's Helsinki office. He oversaw the publication of multiple informative books, the most well-known being Pikkujättiläinen (literally "little giant"), published for the first time in 1924.