Joona Jasper Pääkkönen (; born 15 July 1980) is a Finnish film actor. Following a two-decade-plus career in Finnish movies, Pääkkönen's international breakthrough role came in 2015 in the

historical drama A historical drama (also period drama, period piece or just period) is a dramatic work set in the past, usually used in the context of film and television, which presents history, historical events and characters with varying degrees of fiction s ...

television series ''

Vikings Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

'' (2016–2018; 2020) as Halfdan the Black. His next roles were in

Spike Lee Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and author. His work has continually explored race relations, issues within the black community, the role of media in contemporary ...

's comedy-drama film ''

BlacKkKlansman ''BlacKkKlansman'' is a 2018 American biographical film, biographical Crime film, crime comedy-drama film directed by Spike Lee and written by Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott and Lee, loosely based on the 2014 memoir ''Black K ...

'' (2018) and in the war drama film '' Da 5 Bloods'' (2020).

Early life

Pääkkönen was born in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

, the son of actor Seppo Pääkkönen and Virve Havelin. His uncle Antti Pääkkönen is also an actor, and is a prolific voice actor. Already as a child, Pääkkönen was a theater assistant and attended Kallio Upper Secondary School of Performing Arts in Kallio, Helsinki. When Pääkkönen was 17, he spent a year in

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

as an exchange student at

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

's Owings Mills High School during the 1997–98 school year.

Career

Pääkkönen's first film role was in '' The Glory and Misery of Human Life'' from 1988, when he was seven years old. He became famous as Saku Salin in the Finnish television soap opera '' Salatut elämät'' (1999–2002). According to a calculation published by Finnish tabloid ''

Ilta-Sanomat is one of Finland's two prominent tabloid-size evening newspapers and the largest paper in the country. Its counterpart and biggest rival is '' Iltalehti''. According to the National Media Research done in 2019, ''Ilta-Sanomat'' is also the bi ...

'', Pääkkönen is "the most profitable film actor in Finland" for having starred in numerous box office hits during his career. Many of Pääkkönen's films have made #1 at the Finnish box office, including '' Bad Boys'', which is one of the most successful Finnish films at the national box office of all time. Other of Pääkkönen's commercial and critical successes include '' Frozen Land'' (2005), '' Matti: Hell Is for Heroes'' (2006), '' Lapland Odyssey'' (2010) and '' Heart of a Lion'' (2013). Cannes 2018 14

For his role in ''Bad Boys'', Pääkkönen was given the Best Actor Award in the Brussels International Independent Film Festival. He has earned international praise from film critic Michael Giltz from the ''

Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers ...

'', who called the actor "handsome and compelling" in his role in ''Lapland Odyssey''. Film critic Leslie Felperin from '' Variety'' named Pääkkönen a "rising thesp, showing impressive range" in his starring role in ''Matti''. In 2006 the European Film Promotion introduced Pääkkönen as the Shooting Star of Finland at the

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

. In 2013, Pääkkönen starred in Finnish drama film ''Heart of a Lion'' that earned him his first Jussi Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 2015, Pääkkönen was cast in the fourth season of the

History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...

TV series ''

'' as Halfdan the Black. Pääkkönen co-starred as a KKK member in

's drama ''

'', which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and was released on 10 August 2018. He starred in Lee's 2020

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

production '' Da 5 Bloods''.

Other work

In 2009 Pääkkönen founded the Pokerisivut.com

poker Poker is a family of Card game#Comparing games, comparing card games in which Card player, players betting (poker), wager over which poker hand, hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, with varying rules i ...

magazine together with film producer Markus Selin. In 2010 Pokerisivut.com was awarded Best Overall Affiliate at the London 2010 iGB Affiliate Awards. Pääkkönen is a member of the Vision

fly fishing Fly fishing is an angling technique that uses an ultra-lightweight lure called an artificial fly, which typically mimics small invertebrates such as flying and aquatic insects to attract and catch fish. Because the mass of the fly lure is in ...

world team and has appeared on fly fishingTV shows and DVDs as a celebrity guest. Pääkkönen is also known as the protector of endangered fish species of Finland (especially

salmon Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...

). He has also founded and is one of the owners of Superflies.com, which sells a selection of flies curated by Pääkkönen and raises funds for endangered native fish populations. Pääkkönen has also begun an entrepreneurship with MP Antero Vartia. They built a large sauna and restaurant complex called Löyly at the shore of Hernesaari, Helsinki which cost

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

6 million to build. Pääkkönen is one of the founders of Röykkä Invest Oy, in whose name the former Nummela Sanatorium, located in the Röykkä village in Nurmijärvi, was bought for €1.5 million. Pääkkönen has announced a plan to turn the former sanatorium into a

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

Personal life

Since 2017, Pääkkönen has been married to Spanish-Filipino model Alexandra Escat. The couple had a daughter on Christmas Day 2021. Pääkkönen announced the birth of their second child son in January 2024.

Filmography

Television credits

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Paakkonen, Jasper 1980 births Living people Male actors from Helsinki Finnish male television actors Finnish male film actors