Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy (Ukrainian: Володимир Олександрович Зеленський; Russian: Владимир Александрович Зеленский, romanized: Vladimir Aleksandrovich Zelenskyy, born 25 January 1978), also transliterated as Zelensky, is a Ukrainian politician, former actor and comedian who has served as the sixth and current president of Ukraine since 2019. Zelenskyy grew up as a native Russian speaker in Kryvyi Rih, a major city of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast in central Ukraine. Prior to his acting career, he obtained a degree in law from the Kyiv National Economic University. He then pursued a career in comedy and created the production company Kvartal 95, which produced films, cartoons, and TV shows including the TV series Servant of the People, in which Zelenskyy played the role of the Ukrainian president. The series aired from 2015 to 2019 and was immensely popular.