Nº86 Jasper Pääkkönen

From Helsinki, Jasper Pääkkönen (1980)  is best known for his roles in BlacKkKlansman, Vikings, and Heart of a Lion and is considered Finland’s most profitable film actor. Since he was young, Pääkkönen has had a passion for the performing arts, growing up with his father Seppo and uncle Anttii Pääkkönen who are also actors.  Now, he himself has had successful 20 plus years in acting.

Jasper’s first role was in The Glory and Misery of Human Life when he was just 7 years old. It was soon after this with his role as Saku Salin in the television soap opera Salatut elämät that he became famous in Finland. One of his most noteworthy early films however is Bad Boys, which is one of the most successful Finnish films at the national box office of all time. It was for his role in this film that he won the Best Actor Award in the Brussels International Independent Film Festival.

Aside from his acting career, Pääkkönen is known for his entrepreneurship and love for fishing. In 2015-16, he and Antero Vartia, a finnish politician, came together to build Löyly, a sauna and restaurant complex in Hernesaari, Helsinki.

In his free time, Pääkkönen spends his time fly fishing and is even part of the Vision fly fishing world team. As an environmentalist, he has also founded Superflies.com, a company created to raise funds for endangered native fish species in Finland.