Volodymyr Zelenskyy played a fictional president on Ukrainian television for four years. Then he got the real job.
He was born on January 25, 1978, in Kryvyi Rih, into a Russian-speaking Jewish family. His father, Oleksandr, is a professor and computer scientist; his mother, Rymma, is a retired engineer. Zelenskyy earned a law degree at the city’s Institute of Economics and never practiced. Comedy won out. At 17 he joined a local team in KVN, a comedy competition popular across former Soviet countries, and by 1997 his team had taken the Major League title in a tie with Armenian rivals.
Building Kvartal 95
That same year he started his own team, Kvartal 95, named for the neighborhood where he grew up. The group spent years touring and living in Moscow, often without a fixed address and short of money. In 2003 they left KVN after clashes with its Russian management over money and political censorship. Zelenskyy turned down a well-paid offer that would have meant dropping his team.
Back in Ukraine, he and brothers Borys and Serhiy Shefir founded the Kvartal 95 Studio in September 2003. Evening Kvartal, a mix of skits, celebrity guests and stand-up with some political satire, became the most popular comedy show in the country in the 2000s. By the time Zelenskyy ran for president, more than 85% of Ukrainians said they had watched it.
His screen work was wide. He won the first season of Ukraine’s Dancing with the Stars in 2006, co-produced the sitcom Svaty, starred in romantic comedies, and voiced Paddington Bear in the Ukrainian dub.
From Servant of the People to the Presidency
Servant of the People, the series in which he played a president, aired from 2015 to 2019. In March 2018 he and other Kvartal 95 associates founded a political party with the same name. Zelenskyy ran as an anti-establishment, anti-corruption candidate and was already leading polls months before he declared. He beat incumbent Petro Poroshenko in the second round with 73.23% of the vote, the biggest landslide in the history of Ukrainian presidential elections. His party won the snap parliamentary election held soon after his inauguration.
Early in his term he tried to end the war in Donbas through the Minsk agreements and sought talks with Vladimir Putin.
February 2022
Russia launched its full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022. Zelenskyy stayed in Kyiv while the city came under attack and turned down international offers to evacuate him. He declared martial law and a general mobilisation. Russian assassination attempts on him have reportedly been numerous.
He has since visited the front lines and newly liberated areas, and has pressed world leaders for military aid and tougher sanctions on Russia. Time named him its Person of the Year for 2022. His term was due to end in May 2024, but martial law bars a regular election, and he is expected to stay in office for the duration of the war. Zelenskyy has called for an unconditional ceasefire and talks built on a 20-point peace plan.
