Volodymyr Zelenskyy Sitcom ‘Servant of the People’ Returns to Netflix

Before Zelenskyy was the president of Ukraine, he played one on TV

servant of the people
Eccho Rights

“Servant of the People” – the TV series starring President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine – is back on Netflix by popular demand.

After debuting in 2015, the sitcom streamed on Netflix in the U.S. for a time before leaving the service. Now that Zelenskyy has become a household name in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last month, there is renewed interest in the show.

“You asked and it’s back!” Netflix announced Wednesday. “Servant of the People is once again available on Netflix in The US. The 2015 satirical comedy series stars Volodymyr Zelenskyy playing a teacher who unexpectedly becomes President after a video of him complaining about corruption suddenly goes viral.”

Part of the fascination with “Servant of the People” stems from the life-imitating-art aspect of the premise. Zelenskyy was elected president of Ukraine in early 2019 after previously working as an actor and comedian.

The show, which he produced under his banner Studio Kvartel 95, spanned three seasons and a spinoff movie. It came to an end when Zelenskyy announced his bid for office. He ran under the political party Servant of the People, which took its name from the series.

In 2016, “Servant of the People” won Best Feature Series award at the Teletriumph Awards in Ukraine, as well as the Gold Remi Award for Television Comedy at Houston’s WorldFest.

In addition to Netflix, the UK’s Channel 4, the Middle East’s MBC, Greece’s ANT 1 and Romania’s PRO TV have all recently licensed the show. Eccho Rights, the distributing company, has also reported deals with broadcasters in Bulgaria, Moldova, Estonia, France, Finland and Georgia.

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