Best known for playing the role of Chewbacca in the Star Wars film series, Joonas Viljami Suotamo is an actor and former professional basketball player from Finland. Suotamo had a keen interest in both stage performance and sports from a very early age. Suotamo was very good in academics and he was twice named the Academic All-Big Ten Team; during his youth, he played in the power forward and center positions for the Penn State Nittany Lions and also performed in various roles as a stage actor. His notable film credits include Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) and Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018).