On October 16, 2015, a sitcom named Servant of the People premiered on the Ukrainian channel 1+1. The show featured the story of a school teacher who would accidentally become the president of Ukraine, after a viral video—filmed by one of his students—showed him ranting against corruption in the country. Actor-comedian Volodymyr Zelenskyy played the lead in this hit show, and that was his stepping stone to active politics and power.
On December 31, 2018, Zelenskyy declared his candidacy against president Petro Poroshenko, who was battling anti-incumbency and corruption allegations. Zelenskyy, who had a sizable social media following, launched an anti-corruption campaign which got him votes in the presidential elections. And, on May 20, 2019, Zelenskyy became the sixth president of Ukraine.
Born into a Jewish family on January 25, 1978, in Kryvyi Rih—a central Ukraine city—Zelenskyy spent four years of his childhood in Mongolia, where his parents were employed. Later, the family returned to Kryvyi Rih.
In 1995, at the age of 17, he entered the Kyiv National Economic University to study law. The same year, he joined a local theatre club. Later he started performing with the university’s KVN (a popular Russian comedy franchise) team. Later he became actor, scriptwriter and producer with the comedy group Kvartal 95, named after a neighbourhood in Kryvyi Rih. His big break came when Kvartal 95 entered KVN’s major league.
From 1998 to 2003, the team performed in the major league and toured many former Soviet republics. In 2003, Zelenskyy created a production house, Studio Kvartal 95, which became one of the most successful entertainment studios in Ukraine. In the same year, he married Olena Kiyashko, who had been his schoolmate.
Zelenskyy worked mainly in Russian language TV shows. In 2014, when the Ukrainian ministry of culture moved to ban Russian artists, Zelenskyy came out strongly against it. Interestingly, a group of Russian politicians and artists launched a campaign to ban his works in Russia. The group was irked by media reports that said that Zelenskyy had made a hefty donation for the Ukrainian army’s operation against Russia-backed separatists in Donbas in 2014-2015.
Some of his jokes, especially those featuring Russian President Vladimir Putin, had landed him in the soup. In 2019, Russian broadcaster TNT abruptly stopped airing Servant of the People, after the first three episodes. This happened after TNT was ridiculed for censoring Zelenskyy’s joke that made references to a vulgar anti-Putin chant: “Putin Huylo”.
As tensions with Russia heightened, Zelenskyy’s approval ratings slumped, and some of his “jokes” created chaos. On February 14, he made a sarcastic comment that Russia would attack Ukraine on February 16—taking a dig at other countries predicting the date of the Russian invasion. His spokesperson later clarified that it was a joke, but the comment spooked the markets.
During his presidential campaign days, a reporter asked Zelenskyy how he would deal with Putin. He reportedly replied: “I would speak to him at eye level.” It was a jab at Putin being at least three inches shorter than Poroshenko. But now, Ukrainians expect him to do just that.