By now, you’ve probably heard or read all about President Vladimir Putin’s decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. You may have even read up on Putin’s past or perhaps watched a documentary detailing Putin’s rise to power.
But what you probably didn’t know is that Ukraine President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a successful career as a comedian and actor before he transitioned to politics.
After being a part of the winning team of KVN’s Major League (a Russian comedy competition) at just 17 years old in 1997, Zelenskyy went on to create what would soon become a production company, called Kvartal 95.
From there, Zelenskyy starred in various Ukrainian films such as Love In The Big City, Office Romance. Our Time, Rzhevsky Versus Napoleon and 8 First Dates. He also starred in a Ukraine comedy series, Servant of the People. Ironically, the character he played was a high-school teacher who ended up becoming the Ukraine president.
Despite Netflix being the worldwide distributor for Servant of the People, it’s no longer available on the streaming platform. However, Kvartal 95’s official Youtube channel has made every episode available to watch for free; you can do so by clicking here. And you can watch a teaser trailer for Servant of the People below:
Kvartal 95 officially registered a political party (named Servant of the People after the TV show) in Ukraine in 2018 after Servant of the People became a massive hit. Shortly after, on the 31st of December 2018, Zelenskyy announced his candidacy for the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election.
Zelenskyy worked as a comedian and actor up until roughly 2018-2019, as the most recent episode of Servant of the People – which he starred in – aired in March 2019. One month later, on the 21st of April 2019, Zelenskyy was elected president of Ukraine; in a landslide, we might add, with 73 per cent of the votes.
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