The 6ft11 Finnish basketball pro and actor is best known for his fantastic work as the galaxy’s most loved furry friend, Chewbacca, in the latest Star Wars saga. Born in Finland, Joonas Suotamo first fell in love with film and acting as a youngster when he started performing in local plays. Also extremely talented at basketball, the superstar earned himself a scholarship to play at Pennsylvania State University.
Joonas crossed the seas to play for the Penn State Nittany Lions as a power forward and centre. During his time in college the film buff also studied film and video, was twice named to the Academic All-Big Ten Team due to his outstanding academic performance. Joonas graduated in 2008 with a Bachelor of Arts in just 3 and a half years, with the goal of fulfilling his Finnish conscription service and finally pursuing his aspirations in film and acting. The multi talented youngster left the army as second lieutenant (res).
In 2015 Joonas first joined the billion dollar Star Wars franchise as a body double for Peter Mayhew who was currently portraying the role of Chewbacca. He soon took over for an ageing Peter becoming the official Chewbacca in subsequent movies Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019). On top of all his blockbuster success the professional sportsman has also played 7 seasons in Finnish basketball leagues, including 4 in top-tier Korisliiga. Joonas represented the Finnish national team in 3 games and the Junior national team in a massive 66.