# Jasper Pääkkönen

Joona Jasper Pääkkönen (Finnish pronunciation:; 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 television series Vikings (2016–2018; 2020) as Halfdan the Black. His next roles were in Spike Lee's comedy-drama film BlacKkKlansman (2018) and in the war drama film Da 5 Bloods (2020).

## Early life

Pääkkönen was born in Helsinki, 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 as an exchange student at Baltimore'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, 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).
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, 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.
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 TV series Vikings as Halfdan the Black.
Pääkkönen co-starred as a KKK member in Spike Lee's drama BlacKkKlansman, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and was released on 10 August 2018. He starred in Lee's 2020 Netflix production Da 5 Bloods.

### Other work

In 2009 Pääkkönen founded the Pokerisivut.com poker 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 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). 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 €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.

## 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

| Year | Title | Role | Director | Notes |
| 1988 | The Glory and Misery of Human Life | Arvi Hongisto | Matti Kassila | |
| 2003 | Bad Boys | Eero Takkunen | Aleksi Mäkelä | |
| 2004 | Addiction | Aleksi | Minna Virtanen | |
| 2004 | Vares: Private Eye | Jarmo | Aleksi Mäkelä | |
| 2005 | Frozen Land | Niko Smolander | Aku Louhimies | |
| 2006 | Matti: Hell Is for Heroes | Matti Nykänen | Aleksi Mäkelä | |
| 2007 | V2: Dead Angel (Vares 2) | Dante Hell | Aleksi Mäkelä | |
| 2008 | Moomin and Midsummer Madness | Moomintroll (Finnish voice) | Maria Lindberg |
| 2008 | Kummeli Alivuokralainen [fi] | Kikke | Matti Grönberg | |
| 2009 | Hellsinki | Korppu | Aleksi Mäkelä | |
| 2010 | Moomins and the Comet Chase | Moomintroll (Finnish voice) | Maria Lindberg | |
| 2010 | Lapland Odyssey | Kapu | Dome Karukoski | |
| 2011 | The Kiss of Evil (Vares 3) | Kyypakkaus | Anders Engström | |
| 2011 | Vares – Huhtikuun tytöt [fi] The Girls of April (Vares 4) | Kyypakkaus | Lauri Törhönen | |
| 2011 | Vares – Sukkanauhakäärme [fi] Garter Snake (Vares 5) | Kyypakkaus | Lauri Törhönen | |
| 2012 | Naked Harbour | Anders | Aku Louhimies | |
| 2012 | Vares – Uhkapelimerkki [fi] Gambling Chip (Vares 7) | Kyypakkaus | Lauri Törhönen | |
| 2012 | Vares – Pimeyden tango [fi] Tango of Darkness (Vares 8) | Kyypakkaus | Lauri Törhönen | |
| 2013 | Heart of a Lion | Harri | Dome Karukoski | Won the Jussi Award for Best Supporting Actor |
| 2015 | Vares – Sheriffi [fi] The Sheriff (Vares 9) | Kyypakkaus | Hannu Salonen | |
| 2016 | Jet Trash | Mike | Charles Henri Belleville | |
| 2018 | BlacKkKlansman | Felix Kendrickson | Spike Lee | |
| 2020 | Da 5 Bloods | Seppo | Spike Lee | |
| 2021 | Omerta 6/12 | Max Tanner | Aku Louhimies | |
| 2024 | Vares X [fi] (Vares 10) | Kyypakkaus | Tuukka Temonen | |

## Television credits

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1999–2002 | Salatut elämät | Saku Salin | Regular role; 387 episodes |
| 2003 | Kaunis mies | Joonatan Kuusisto | |
| 2003 | Irtiottoja - Fragments | Johnny | |
| 2016–2018; 2020 | Vikings | Halfdan the Black | Main cast (seasons 4–5) Guest (season 6) |
| 2019 | Pihlajasatu | Saku Salin | 4 episodes |
| TBA | The Dark Tower | Marten Broadcloak | Main role |