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 in the Star Wars saga, taking over the role from Peter Mayhew, first as a body double, with Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), and later as the principal performer of Chewbacca in Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) and in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019). He also plays Lurch in the second season of Wednesday on Netflix.
Early life and education Suotamo was born in Espoo. In his youth he performed roles as a stage actor. Suotamo attended Pennsylvania State University (PSU) and played the power forward and centre positions for the Penn State Nittany Lions. 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. He has also had a career selling insurance.
National team career Suotamo played three games for the Finnish national basketball team and 66 games for the junior national teams.
Acting career Suotamo is mostly known for his role as Chewbacca in the Star Wars franchise, a role in which he started out being a body double for the original actor Peter Mayhew 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 replace Mayhew entirely 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) and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019). Suotamo made his first non-Chewbacca appearance in the franchise by playing Kelnacca, a Wookiee Jedi in the High Republic era, in The Acolyte.
Filmography Film Year Title Role Notes 2015 Star Wars: The Force Awakens Chewbacca Shared role with Peter Mayhew and Ian Whyte 2017 Star Wars: The Last Jedi 2018 Solo: A Star Wars Story 2019 Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Streaming series Year(s) Title Role NotesNetwork 2022–2023 Willow The Scourge 4 episodesDisney+ 2024 The Acolyte Kelnacca 5 episodes 2025–presentWednesday Lurch6 episodes Netflix
References
External links
Penn State Nittany Lions bio Joonas Suotamo at sports-reference.com Finnish leagues statistics at basket.fi