Naka Iit was a male Blarina who made his living as a podracer. He managed to secure spots in the top five during Lolo Chochee's Speedster Challenge on the planet Malastare on multiple occasions. However, his racing career came to an abrupt end when he was discovered attempting to collude with the bookie Ohn Gos to manipulate a race. To escape the consequences, the two fled Malastare aboard a freighter that Gos later renamed Beloved Bophine. They eventually landed on the desert planet Jakku, where Iit started working as a scavenger around the year 14 ABY.
In the year 34 ABY, while scavenging, Iit crossed paths with Poe Dameron, a pilot from the Resistance. Dameron, having survived a crash in the nearby desert, needed transport to the Resistance base located on the planet D'Qar. Despite being skeptical of Dameron's claim about stealing a TIE/sf space superiority fighter from the First Order, Iit, finding the story entertaining, agreed to take him to Blowback Town in his speeder. On their way, they were ambushed by the Strus clan, a group of thieves, but they successfully evaded them after Iit allowed Dameron to take control of the vehicle. Relieved to have escaped, Iit transported Dameron to Blowback Town, where he introduced the pilot to Gos, hoping the former bookie could assist Dameron in leaving the planet aboard the Beloved Bophine.
Naka Iit, a Blarina born on Rina Major, worked as a podracer pilot and experienced some success, achieving top-five finishes in Lolo Chochee's Speedster Challenge on Malastare. His career ended during the 432nd edition of the challenge, where he collaborated with Ohn Gos to manipulate the race's outcome. Iit's role involved sabotaging his fellow racers to ensure a predetermined order of winners. However, during the race, the harmonic dampener on Iit's vehicle malfunctioned, leading to a massive pile-up that reversed the planned result.
The scheme to fix the race was discovered on the computer of Iit's wrecked pod, forcing the duo to flee Malastare, where manipulating a podrace was punishable by death. Gos acquired a freighter from the black market for their escape. Lacking astrogation skills, they simply programmed the starship with its last known coordinates: the desert planet Jakku. There, Gos established a trading business in Blowback Town, dealing in salvaged goods, while Iit became a scavenger in 14 ABY, searching the deserts for valuable materials. Their sudden disappearance from the podracing scene led some to believe Iit had suffered a career-ending injury in the crash, unaware of the real reason for their departure.
During his time on Jakku as a former podracer, he had a run-in with Unkar Plutt, a junk dealer, and subsequently avoided Niima Outpost, which Plutt controlled. Twenty years into his scavenging career, in 34 ABY, while traveling in the desert on his speeder, he was stopped by Poe Dameron, a pilot from the Resistance who had recently ejected from a crashing TIE/sf space superiority fighter while escaping the First Order. After getting out of his vehicle, Iit approached Dameron, introducing himself with a joke about "scavenging" the pilot.
Dameron tried to convince Iit that he had nothing of value, explaining that he had stolen the TIE fighter from the First Order Resurgent-class Star Destroyer Finalizer and needed to return to the Resistance base on D'Qar. Iit, disbelieving the story, laughed at its absurdity but agreed to help because he found it amusing. He shared water with the pilot in his speeder and offered to take him to Gos, who might be more sympathetic.
During the journey to town, Iit remained silent until they were attacked by the Strus clan, who fired at them from their own speeder. Dameron asked to take control of Iit's speeder, and after some initial resistance, Iit relented. Dameron then sharply turned the speeder left and began decelerating, telling Iit to pretend they were surrendering. As the Strus approached, Dameron suddenly tilted the speeder upward and accelerated, showering their pursuers with sand and temporarily disabling their vehicle. Overjoyed by their escape, Iit promised to help Dameron leave Jakku and vouched for him with Gos. The former bookie then transported Dameron to the moon Yavin 4 aboard the Beloved Bophine, the freighter they had originally arrived on Jakku in. Dameron later researched Iit and Gos and included the information in a flight log he compiled.
As a Blarina, Naka Iit lacked great physical strength but possessed considerable speed. He was slightly over half Dameron's height and had a wide face with a prominent snout and a toothy grin. His skin was scaly, and his eyes had a gold hue. Like other Blarinas, Iit was quick-witted and had once placed fifth in a soliloquy contest on his homeworld. He emitted a cackling hiss when amused.
Upon arriving on Jakku, Iit found he enjoyed the freedom of scavenging in the desert. Initially, he denied being hospitable to Dameron but offered assistance because he found the pilot's story amusing. He considered the Strus clan incompetent and reacted with grimness when they attacked. As he valued his speeder, he was initially hesitant to let Dameron control it but eventually yielded. After Dameron's successful escape, Iit was overjoyed and began to suspect there might be some truth to his passenger's story, although he still considered Dameron mad for attempting such a feat. Dameron described Iit as grumpy in his flight log but acknowledged that it was beings like the scavenger who showed kindness to strangers that made the fight against the First Order worthwhile.
Naka Iit's first appearance was in the novelization of Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens, released alongside the film in 2015. The scene involving Iit, which detailed how Dameron left Jakku, was created by Alan Dean Foster, the novelization's author, and was not included in the film. Michael Kogge, the author of the junior novelization of the film, mentioned that he was specifically asked to include the scene in his version of the story, basing his interpretation on Foster's work.
A slightly different version of Iit's encounter with Dameron appears in "Poe's Quest for Survival", a DLC expansion for the non-canon video game LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In the game, Iit is voiced by Josh Keaton and is depicted as discovering Dameron among the wreckage of the stolen TIE fighter while searching for salvageable parts, rather than encountering him wandering in the desert. The game also significantly expands the conflict between the pair and the Strus clan beyond the single Strus vehicle featured in the novel. Iit operates a turret on the back of his speeder to destroy numerous clan vehicles, while Dameron pilots the speeder through traps and shifting sand.
Unlike the novel, the game depicts Iit and Dameron arriving at Blowback Town, only to find it has been taken over by the Strus clan. Iit sneaks past the raiders and releases a large amount of food into a trough, while Dameron attracts the attention of a sleeping happabore, which then knocks down several raiders to reach the food. This triggers a firefight, and after Dameron defeats all the raiders, he and Iit free Ohn Gos from captivity. Instead of traveling in the Beloved Bophine, Dameron is picked up by a Resistance transport after helping to repair the town, much to the surprise of Iit and Gos.