Joonas Viljami Suotamo (; born 3 October 1986) is a Finnish actor and former professional basketball player. He is best known for his role as

Chewbacca Chewbacca ( ), nicknamed "Chewie", is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. He is a Wookiee, a tall, hirsute, bipedal, intelligent species originating from the fictional planet of Kashyyyk. Chewbacca is the loyal friend and firs ...

in the ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

'' saga, taking over the role from

Peter Mayhew Peter William Mayhew (19 May 1944 – 30 April 2019) was a British-American actor. He was best known for portraying Chewbacca in the ''Star Wars'' film series. He played the character in all of his live-action appearances from the 1977 origin ...

, first as a body double, with '' Star Wars: The Force Awakens'' (2015), and later as the lead in '' Star Wars: The Last Jedi'' (2017), '' Solo: A Star Wars Story'' (2018) and in '' Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker'' (2019).

Early life and education

Suotamo was born in

Espoo Espoo (, ; sv, Esbo) is a city and municipality in the region of Uusimaa in the Republic of Finland. It is located on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, bordering the cities of Helsinki, Vantaa, Kirkkonummi, Vihti and Nurmijärvi ...

. In his youth he performed roles as a stage actor. Suotamo attended

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

(PSU) and played the

power forward The power forward (PF), also known as the four, is one of the five traditional positions in a regulation basketball game. Traditionally, power forwards have played a role similar to centers. When on offense, they typically play with their ba ...

and

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

positions for the

Penn State Nittany Lions The Penn State Nittany Lions are the athletic teams of Pennsylvania State University, except for the women's basketball team, known as the Lady Lions. The school colors are navy blue and white. The school mascot is the Nittany Lion. The interco ...

. With childhood interests in music, arts, and movies he studied film and video at PSU. He was a strong academic performer at Penn State, where he was twice named to the Academic All-Big Ten team, and graduated in years with a Bachelor of Arts degree in December 2008 in order to fulfill his Finnish conscription service and to pursue a career in film. He left the army at the rank of second lieutenant (res).

Basketball career

Club career

Suotamo played seven seasons in Finland's basketball leagues, including four seasons in the top-tier

Korisliiga The Korisliiga is the top-tier professional basketball league in Finland, comprising the top 12 teams of the country. In its current format, each team plays all other teams two times in the regular season, once at home and once away, for a total o ...

. He has also had a career selling insurance.

National team career

Suotamo played three games for the

Finnish national basketball team The Finland men's national basketball team ( fi, Suomen koripallomaajoukkue, sv, Finlands herrlandslag i basket) represents Finland in international basketball competition. The national team is governed by Basketball Finland. Finland has playe ...

and 66 games for the junior national teams.

Acting career

Suotamo is mostly known for his role as

in the ''

'' franchise, a role in which he started out being a body double for the original actor

in '' Star Wars: The Force Awakens'' (2015), as Mayhew's age and worsening health was making it more difficult for him to fill the role. He went on to entirely replace Mayhew in '' Star Wars: The Last Jedi'' (2017) as Chewbacca, with Mayhew as a consultant. He returned to the role in '' Solo: A Star Wars Story'' (2018)Meet The New Chewbacca - Joonas Suotamo
-> and '' Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker'' (2019).

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* *
Penn State basketball profile

at sports-reference.com
Finnish leagues statistics
at basket.fi {{DEFAULTSORT:Suotamo, Joonas Living people 21st-century Finnish male actors Centers (basketball) Espoon Honka players Finnish expatriate basketball people in the United States Finnish men's basketball players Penn State Nittany Lions basketball players Penn State College of Arts and Architecture alumni People from Espoo Power forwards (basketball) 1986 births