Zelensky, Vladimir Alexandrovich

Vladimir Aleksandrovich Zelensky was born on January 25, 1978 in the city of Krivoy Rog (Ukrainian SSR) into a Ukrainian-Jewish family ^{[4] [5]} . He speaks Ukrainian , Russian and English ^[6] .

Grandfather - Semyon Ivanovich Zelensky (1924, Kryvyi Rih -?), A Ukrainian ^[7] , was a member of the Great Patriotic War , commander of a mortar platoon, and then commander of a rifle company of 174 regiment of the 57th Guards Rifle Division, in 1944 he received two orders of the Red Star , finished the war with the rank of lieutenant guard ^{[8] [9] [10] [11]} .

Father - Alexander Semenovich Zelensky (born December 23, 1947), mathematician, programmer ^[12] , doctor of technical sciences , professor , head of the department of computer science - a teacher at the same university where Vladimir studied ^{[13] [14]} . My father lived and worked in Mongolia for 20 years, built a mining and processing plant in the city of Erdenet ^[12] .

Mother - Rimma Vladimirovna Zelenskaya (born September 16, 1950), has an engineering degree, has 40 years of work experience, and is currently retired ^[12] .

As a child, he lived with his parents for four years in Mongolia , where his father worked. He graduated from the first class there, after which Vladimir and his mother returned to Krivoy Rog ^[15] . He studied at school number 95 with in-depth study of the English language. In school, he was engaged in Greco-Roman wrestling ^[12] , weightlifting, collecting stamps, playing the piano, doing ballroom dancing, playing basketball and volleyball. He took part in school activities, was a guitarist in the school ensemble ^{[16] [17] [18]} . At 16, he received a grant for free education in Israel , but his father was against it ^[12] .

Graduated from school in 1995. At school, he dreamed of becoming a diplomat and even prepared at MGIMO , but enrolled in law studies at the Kryvyi Rih Institute of Economics at Kiev National Economic University ^[19] , which he graduated in 2000. In his specialty, he never worked ^[20] .

KVN

In 11th grade, he organized a team of graduates and played in KVN with a team of teachers, the students won ^[15] . After school, he played in the KVN team “Young Kryvyi Rih” ^[18] , then he was invited to the KVN team “ Zaporozhye - Kryvyi Rih - Transit ” for staging dance numbers; Zelensky’s role in the team gradually expanded, and he began to participate in the numbers. Simultaneously with Zelensky, the future actors of the Kvartal-95 studio came to Zaporizhia-Krivoy Rog-Transit: Denis Manzhosov, Yuri Krapov , Alexander Pikalov . It was they who, after the 1997 season , in which Zaporizhia-Kryvyi Rih-Transit became the champion, created a new team, which was called the “ 95th quarter ”. Vladimir Zelensky became in it not only an actor and captain, but also one of the leading authors.

From 1998 to 2003, the “95th quarter” played in the Premier League of KVN , the team members practically lived in Moscow and constantly toured the cities of the CIS . As part of the “95th quarter” Zelensky in 2002 reached the semi-finals of the Highest League of KVN and twice (in 2000 and 2001) became the owner of “KiViNa svetly” - the second prize of the KVN music festival “Voting KiwiN”.

Studio "Quarter-95"

At the end of 2003, the Ukrainian television channel 1 + 1 suggested that the 95th quarter make a series of concerts consisting of the best numbers of the team.

In 2004, the team began to prepare a project, while also moonlighting in various television programs. Vladimir led the culinary show "Mr. Cook." All revenues were invested in the overall project, and in 2005, the TV channel " Inter " began the television show " Evening Quarter ", whose ideologist, author, director and lead actor is Vladimir Zelensky. The show quickly gained popularity and soon overtook KVN and Comedy Club in ratings among Ukrainian audiences. Critics attribute the Evening Quarter to a political cabaret.

In addition, the 95th Quarter team grew into the Kvartal-95 studio, owned by Vladimir Zelensky, Boris and Sergey Shefira, Andrei Yakovlev ^[21] .

The studio released several television projects (“Evening Quarter”, “Fight Club”, “Ukraine, Get Up”), wrote scripts for television programs (“Song of the Year”, “Half Moon”), musicals (“For Two Hares”, “Three Musketeers”, “A very New Year’s movie or a night at the museum”), films ^[22] , corporate parties.

In the period from December 2010 to August 2011 and from November 2011 to September 2012, Vladimir Zelensky was the general producer of the Inter channel, a number of leadership positions on the channel were held by members of his team ^{[23] [24]} . Financing was mainly focused on the production of the Kvartal-95 studio projects ^[25] .

In 2012, in the framework of the TV show " Evening Kiev " ^[26] , which aired on the Ukrainian channel " 1 + 1 ", it puts and reads a text from the author in the animated series " Fairy-Tale Russia " ^[27] .

TV projects

• 2004 - Mr. Cook (Presenter)
• 2005—2019 - “The Evening Quarter ” (actor, author)
• Fight Club (host)
• “ Song of the Year in Ukraine” (host)
• 2006 and 2018 - “ Dancing with the Stars ” a participant paired with Alena Shoptenko and the winner in 2006, in 2018 a jury member of the last broadcast
• 2008 - Office Romance (Presenter)
• 2010 - “Drilled in Ukraine” (host with Valery Zhidkov )
• Pure NEWS (Presenter)
• 2011 - “ Millionaire - Hot Chair ” (host)
• 2011—2018 - “ Laugh the comedian ” - Ukrainian version (jury member with Evgeny Koshev , previously with Mikhail Galustyan )
• International Music Festival in Yalta " Crimea Music Fest " (hosted by Masha Efrosinina and Maxim Galkin )
• 2011—2013 - “Sunday with the Quarter” (author of the idea and producer)
• 2012—2017 - “ Evening Kiev ” (host with Valery Zhidkov )
• 2012 - Chervone abo chorn (presenter)
• 2013 - “ I Want V VIA Gro ” (presenter with Vera Brezhneva )
• 2014 - “I Want to Meladze” (author of the idea)
• 2015 - Guess the Box (author of the idea)
• 2015—2018 - “ League of laughter ” (host)

TV projects in Russia

• 2006, 2010-2012 - television concerts of the "Evening Quarter" ( TV Center , STS , " Russia-1 ")
• 07/31/2010 - “The new wave of 2010 . Premier Day ”(“ Russia-1 ”) - one of the leading
• 2011 - “ Factor A. Season 1 "(" Russia-1 ") - presenter with Philip Kirkorov
• 07/27/2011 - “The new wave of 2011 . World Hit Day ”(“ Russia-1 ”) - one of the leading
• 2011 - “Magic” (“Russia-1”) - presenter with Tatyana Lazareva ^[28] (three episodes aired in May 2019 on NTV ^[29] , a previously re-edited version of the footage of the first episode was released on July 9, 2012 on “1 + 1” with Yuri Gorbunov ^{[30] [31]} )
• 12/31/2011 - "New Year's Parade of Stars-2012" ("Russia-1") - presenter with Maxim Galkin
• 2012 - “ Make a comedian laugh . The Russian version ”(“ Russia-1 ”) is a jury member with Maxim Galkin ^[32] . In February 2014, castings were planned to restart the Russian version on the STS channel, but subsequently they were canceled ^[33]
• 07/25/2012 - "The new wave of 2012 . World Hit Day ”(“ Russia-1 ”) - one of the leading
• 2013, 2014 - “First / Second New Year's Eve” (“Russia-1”) - presenter with Maxim Galkin
• 07.24.2013 - “The new wave of 2013 . World Hit Day ”(“ Russia-1 ”) - one of the leading

Movie

In 2008, he starred in the role of Igor’s dentist in the full-length film “ Love in the Big City ”, shot according to the script of the same “Kvartal-95 Studio”.

In 2010, a sequel came out under the title - “ Love in the Big City 2 ”. January 25, the premiere of the film " Rzhevsky against Napoleon ", where Zelensky played one of the main roles - Napoleon Bonaparte . March 17, 2011 the premiere of the film “ Office Romance. Our time ”, where he played Anatoly Novoseltsev. On March 8, 2012, the film “The First 8 dates ” was released, where he played the main role. On January 1, 2014, the comedy “ Love in the Big City 3 ” was released on the screens of cinemas, where Vladimir again played the role of Igor’s dentist. On January 1, 2015, the film “8 new dates” was also released in the lead role.

On April 24, 2019, the director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) Artyom Sytnik announced that the NABU suspects the Kinokvartal company, the founder of which is Vladimir Zelensky, in wasting public funds. An investigation has been launched against the company. Sytnik said that in April NABU received a statement from the organization “Union of Volunteers”. According to her, the Goskino of Ukraine financed 49% of the budget for the film “ I, you, he, she ”, released by the “Kinokvartal”. The company undertook to create a film entirely in Ukrainian or Crimean Tatar, but did not fulfill this condition, says the “Union of Volunteers” ^[34] .

Filmography

Actor

Screenwriter

Producer

Producer

• 2018 - I, you, he, she (together with David Dodson)

Dubbing into Ukrainian

Art Awards and Prizes

In the creative asset has 10 feature films. Winner of more than 30 awards of the National Television Prize of Ukraine "Teletriumph". He is also the winner and winner of many international film, television festivals and media forums ^[19] .

Social and political activity

Supported by Euromaidan ^[35] . During the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, Zelensky supported the actions of the Ukrainian army ^{[36] [19]} and volunteer battalions ^[37] , gave concerts to Ukrainian troops who took part in the fighting in Donbass ^[19] , together with other participants of the “95th quarter ”donated one million hryvnias ^[40] for the needs of volunteer battalions ^{[38] [39 ]} . In his speeches, he began to ridicule Russian politicians and residents of Russia , the self-proclaimed republics: the DPR and LPR . At the same time, Zelensky had difficulties in Russia. In particular, the evening block show was canceled on Russian television, and in February 2015, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, at the request of Dmitry Zakharov, a deputy of the Moscow municipal district of Yakimanka, began checking information on the financing of actions by Ukrainian security officials by Zelensky and other Ukrainian cultural figures ^{[41 ]} . Work on the seventh season of the popular and commercially successful Russian-Ukrainian television series Swat was also frozen; some media reported that the cause was political disagreement between Zelensky and Russian actors ^[42] .

At the same time, Zelensky opposed the ban on entry of Russian cultural figures into Ukraine ^[43] and spoke out negatively about the proposal to ban the series “Matchmakers” in Ukraine ^[44] .

Presidential Campaign 2019

In December 2018, in an interview with Ukrainian journalist Dmitry Gordon, Vladimir Zelensky announced the intention of his party “ Servant of the People ” to participate in future parliamentary elections ^[45] .

On December 31, 2018, a few minutes before the New Year, Vladimir Zelensky addressed the Ukrainians on the 1 + 1 television channel, where he announced that he would participate in the presidential elections in Ukraine ^{[46] [47]} . Moreover, for the sake of this event, the traditional congratulation of the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko was shifted to a later time (subsequent statements by Zelensky about a technical error were denied by the 1 + 1 press service, which positioned the incident as a conscious step of the channel ^{[48] [49]} ).

On January 21, 2019, the Party of the Servant of the People nominated Vladimir Zelensky as a candidate for President of Ukraine ^[50] .

In late January, Zelensky first came out on top in election polls ^[51] . By February, Zelensky’s rating rose to 25-30% ^{[52] [53] [54]} , and in mid-March to 34% ^[55] .

On March 31, the first round of the presidential election took place, in which the largest number of votes (30.24%) was won by Vladimir Zelensky - almost twice as many as the current president Petro Poroshenko ^[56] .

In the second round of elections, in which Zelensky went with Petro Poroshenko, he gained, according to the final results of the CEC of Ukraine , 73.22% of the vote (13.5 million votes) ^[57] .

On May 3, information about the winner of the presidential election was posted in the Verkhovna Rada newspaper “The Voice of Ukraine ” and the newspaper of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine “ Government Courier ” ^[58] .