Volodymyr Zelensky

Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy (Ukrainian: Володимир Олександрович Зеленський; born 25 January 1978), where "Volodymyr" is the official English transliteration from Ukrainian (Володимир), distinct from the Russian variant "Vladimir" (Владимир)—with "Valdmir" being a misspelling lacking standard usage—is a Ukrainian politician, former actor, and comedian serving as the sixth president of Ukraine since 20 May 2019.

Zelenskyy co-founded the comedy studio Kvartal 95 in 2003, which produced sketch shows, films, and live performances. He achieved widespread recognition starring in the television series Servant of the People from 2015 to 2019, portraying a high school teacher elected president after a viral anti-corruption rant. Following the series' popularity, he formed the Servant of the People party, registered in March 2018. In the 2019 presidential election, Zelenskyy won the runoff against incumbent Petro Poroshenko with 73.22% of the vote.

Photographs showing Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a young child Volodymyr Zelenskyy was born on 25 January 1978 in [[Kryvyi Rih]], an industrial city in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, to Jewish parents Oleksandr and Rymma Zelenskyy. His father, Oleksandr, worked as a professor of computer science and mathematics, eventually heading the cybernetics department at the Kryvyi Rih Institute of Economics. His mother, Rymma, was an engineer in the local metallurgy industry. The family lived modestly in the working-class environment of Kryvyi Rih, a Russophone hub dominated by Soviet-era heavy industry, with no notable political involvement from either parent.

Zelenskyy's early childhood included a period abroad, as his family resided in Erdenet, Mongolia, for about five years due to his father's professional assignment there, before returning to Kryvyi Rih around 1983 owing to his mother's health issues from the harsh climate. Raised in a secular Soviet Jewish household amid official atheism, Zelenskyy spoke Russian at home and experienced limited overt religious practice, though family lore included Holocaust losses among relatives, such as his great-grandparents killed by Nazis in Ukraine. Kryvyi Rih's pre-war Jewish community had been largely decimated, leaving scant institutional ties, and while regional anti-Semitism persisted in subtle forms during the late Soviet and post-1991 independence eras, Zelenskyy's direct childhood engagement with Jewish cultural networks was minimal.

Zelenskyy was raised in a secular Jewish family shaped by Soviet-era constraints, with limited observance of religious traditions due to state suppression of faith, though family narratives include Holocaust losses among relatives.