Earlier than Volodymyr Zelensky grew to become Ukraine's president, he was an actor, comic and even the voice of Paddington Bear.
The eyes of the world have centered on the 44-year-old president because the break-out of the Russia-Ukraine conflict with particular curiosity in his uncommon background.
Zelensky's path to presidency began in present enterprise.
He was well-known for starring as an abnormal highschool instructor who ended up changing into the president of Ukraine in a satirical comedy programme, Wales On-line studies.
He's the voice of Paddington Bear in Ukraine and clips of the younger president's stint on a dancing competitors have been making the rounds on social media.
This is how Volodymyr Zelensky went from actor to wartime chief.
Who's Volodymyr Zelensky?
Volodymyr Zelensky is the present president of Ukraine, having served within the workplace since Could 2019.
Earlier than getting into politics, he was a comic, satirist and actor.
Born in Kryvyi Rih, central Ukraine in 1978, Zelensky is the nation's first Jewish president.
It is a important milestone for Ukraine as an estimated 1.2-1.6 million Ukrainian Jews - amongst them members of Zelensky’s household - have been murdered within the Nazi Holocaust.
Throughout his comedy profession, Zelensky starred in Servant of the Folks, a massively in style satirical TV sequence.
Within the present, he performed a younger high-school instructor propelled to Ukraine's presidency after his rant towards corruption goes viral.
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The present was so in style in Ukraine that in 2018, a political celebration taking its title from the sequence' title - Servant of the Folks - was registered in Ukraine.
Zelensky ran for the presidency on that celebration's ticket the next 12 months.
Within the Ukrainian presidential election of April 2019, Zelensky gained by a landslide.
He gained greater than 70 p.c of the second-round vote, defeating the earlier incumbent, Petro Poroshenko.
Zelensky’s political fashion is considerably populist - with specific emphasis on tackling corruption - and he's thought to be a social liberal.
He's additionally well-known for his efficient use of social media to speak immediately with the Ukrainian public.