Vladimir Zelenskiy

Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy (Володи́мир Олекса́ндрович Зеле́нський; woloˈdɪmɪr olekˈsɑndrowɪtʃ zeˈlɛnsʲkɪj; Владимир Александрович Зеленский, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Zelenskiy; born 25 January 1978), commonly transliterated as Zelensky, is the 6th and current president of Ukraine. Before entering politics, he was a comedian, actor, screenwriter, film producer, and director. Prior to his political career, he obtained a degree in law and created a production company, Kvartal 95, which produces films, cartoons and TV comedy shows, including Servant of the People, in which Zelensky played the role of President of Ukraine. The series aired from 2015 to 2019. A namesake political party bearing the same name as the television show was created in March 2018 by employees of Kvartal 95. Zelensky announced his candidacy for the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election on the evening of 31 December 2018, alongside the New Year's Eve address of President Petro Poroshenko on 1+1 TV Channel. At the time, Zelensky had already been one of the frontrunners in opinion polls for the election. Zelensky won the election with 73.22% of the vote in the second round, defeating Poroshenko.