Ville Haapasalo is a Finnish and Russian actor. He was born in the city of Lahti, Finland. He spent his childhood in Hollola and graduated from secondary school in 1991. At the age of 19 he ran away to Saint Petersburg to study at a theater academy. Without knowing Russian, he managed to enroll (he memorized texts — prose, fables, poems) in 1991 at the Nikolai Cherkasov Saint Petersburg Theater Academy, in V. Filshtinsky's class, from which he graduated in 1996. His command of Russian gave the actor the opportunity to perform not only on the theatrical stages of his native Finland, but also to appear in plays staged in Russian theaters. Enormous popularity was brought to Ville Haapasalo by Alexander Rogozhkin's film "Peculiarities of the National Hunt," released in 1995.

He was awarded the "Silver Saint George" prize for Best Male Role in Alexander Rogozhkin's drama "The Cuckoo" (2002) at the Moscow International Film Festival. Ville Haapasalo is the most famous Finnish actor in Russia. In 2006–2007 he was a TV presenter on the NTV channel (the program "Glavnaya Doroga"). He performed successfully in the TV project "Ice Age" (2007). In 2009 he co-hosted the TV show "Minute of Fame" on Channel One. In 2010 he hosted on Finnish TV the program "YLE Teema: Venäjän halki 30 päivässä / Across Russia in 30 Days" about Russia and its people.