Page 11 - Volodymyr Zelenskyy: Ukrainian President and Unlikely Hero

In 2003 Zelenskyy married his school sweetheart,
Olena Kiyashko, pictured here with him in 2019.

National Television and Feature Films
For Zelenskyy, 2003 turned out to be productive in ways other
than starting a family. Also that year he cofounded Studio Kvartal
95, a lm company that was destined to become one of his coun-
try’s best-known and most successful entertainment studios.
Zelenskyy served as the company’s artistic director during the
decade that followed. In October 2012 he and Studio Kvartal 95
signed a joint production agreement with 1+1, Ukraine’s largest
television network. It was owned by one of the country’s richest
individuals, Ihor Kolomoisky, who was eager to cash in on Zelen-
skyy’s obvious talent and growing popularity.
In the next three years, while working on TV programs, Zelen-
skyy and his company coproduced some feature lms for movie
theaters. The rst one, launched in late 2012, was a joint pro-
duction with the Russian lm company Leopolis. It was a his-
torical farce titled Rzhevskiy Versus Napoleon. The lm, in which
Zelenskyy delivers a comic portrayal of the French dictator and

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