Volodymyr Zelensky defeated billionaire and incumbent President Petro Poroshenko in 2019.
As soldiers in Ukraine battle the superior Russian forces, President Volodymyr Zelensky is being hailed for rallying the entire country, posting video messages in defiance of Russian aggression.
An old clip of Zelensky has now gone viral in which he is seen performing on the stage of ‘Dancing with the Stars' in 2006. He won the show that year and his dancing moves are now winning the internet.
The video clip has been viewed more than one million times since it appeared online. “Seriously, is there anything this guy can't do?” a Twitter user said.
Another clip from his hit television series Servant of the People is also making the rounds on the internet in which Zelensky played the role of a school teacher. In the clip from the political satire, Zelensky's character Vasyl Petrovych Holoborodko is seen launching a tirade against government corruption and soon finds himself sitting in the President's seat.
The users are linking this to his political debut in 2018 in which anti-corruption plank was his main focus. Zelensky formed an outfit named after his popular show, Servant of the People, in 2015. It was officially registered as a political party three years later.
In the 2019 election, Zelensky defeated billionaire and incumbent President Petro Poroshenko to occupy the top post.
He entered politics at a time when Russian-backed insurgency was raging in eastern Ukraine and corruption was at its peak. Zelensky was catapulted into fame but a video shot by a supporter where he blasted official corruption.
He was born to Jewish parents in the industrial city of Kryvyy Rih. Zelensky's family relocated to Mongolia for four years when he was a young boy but came back to Ukraine.
Zelensky grew up as a native Russian speaker but can also fluently speak English and Ukrainian.
He graduated with a law degree in the year 2000 from Kyiv National Economic University.
While still a student, he became active in theatre. In the years that followed, he also appeared in a number of feature films. Television and films were his main focus till mid-2010s.