World Presidents Who Were Entertainers (See Full List)

At age 17, Volodymyr Zelensky joined the local KVN (a comedy competition) team and was later invited to join the united Ukrainian team “Zaporizhia-Kryvyi Rih-Transit”, which performed in the KVN’s Major League and eventually won in 1997.

That same year, he created and headed the Kvartal 95 team which later transformed into the comedy outfit Kvartal 95.

From 1998 to 2003, 95 years old Kvartal performed in the Major League and the highest open Ukrainian league of KVN. His team members spent a lot of their time in Moscow and constantly toured around post-Soviet countries.

In 2003, Kvartal 95 started producing TV shows for the Ukrainian TV channel 1+1, and in 2005 the team moved to fellow Ukrainian TV channel Inter.

In 2008, he starred in the feature film “Love in the Big City”, and its sequel, “Love in the Big City 2”.

Zelensky continued his movie career with the film Office Romance. Our Time in 2011 and with Rzhevsky Versus Napoleon in 2012. Love in the Big City 3 was released in January 2014.

Zelensky also played the leading role in the 2012 film 8 First Dates and in sequels which were produced in 2015 and 2016.

Zelensky was a member of the board and the general producer of the TV channel Inter from 2010 to 2012.

In 2015, Zelensky became the star of the popular television series Servant of the People, where he plays the role of the President of Ukraine.

In the series, Zelensky’s character is a thirty-something high-school history teacher who wins the presidential election after a viral video shows him ranting against government corruption in Ukraine.

Zelensky worked mostly in Russian. His first role in the Ukrainian language was the romantic comedy “I, You, He, She,” which appeared on the screens of Ukraine in December 2018.

US President, Donald Trump

Apart from being a real estate and media mogul, Donald Trump was also into entertainment business. He was a radio and TV personality. He also participated in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) before becoming the United States President.

In 1988 and 1989, Trump hosted WrestleMania IV and V at the Trump Plaza in Atlantic City. Trump headlined WrestleMania 23 in 2007 and a Monday Night Raw in 2009; the catchphrase “You’re fired” he used on The Apprentice was also used by WWE owner Vince McMahon. In 2013, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame during WrestleMania 29.

In 2003, Trump became the executive producer and host of the NBC reality show “The Apprentice” in which contestants competed for a one-year management job with the Trump Organisation; applicants were successively eliminated from the game with the catchphrase “You’re fired”. He went on to be co-host of “The Celebrity Apprentice”, in which celebrities compete to win money for their charities.

In February 2015, Trump stated that he was “not ready” to sign on for another season of the show because of the possibility of a presidential run.

Trump has made cameo appearances in 12 films and 14 television series, including as the father of one of the characters in “The Little Rascals”. He performed a song with Megan Mullally at the 57th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2005.

Trump receives a pension as a member of the Screen Actors Guild. His financial disclosure forms mentioned an annual pension of $110,000 in 2016 and $85,000 in 2017.

Starting in the 1990s, Trump was a guest about 24 times on the nationally syndicated Howard Stern Show. He also had his own short-form talk radio program called Trumped! (one to two minutes on weekdays) from 2004 to 2008.

Madagascan President, Andry Rajoelina

Andry Rajoelina was a professional DJ, who later set up his own pop radio station, Radio Viva, before becoming the President of Madagascar.

In 1993, at the age of 19, Rajoelina established his first enterprise: a small event production company called “Show Business”. In the following year, he organised an annual concert called Live that brought together foreign and Malagasy musical artists. The event gathered 50,000 participants on its tenth anniversary.

In 1999, he launched Injet, the first digital printing technology company available on the island, which gained quick traction with its expansion of billboard advertising throughout the capital.

Following his marriage in 2000, Andry and Mialy Rajoelina acquired Domapub, a competing Antananarivo-based billboard advertising business owned by Andry’s in-laws. The couple worked together to manage the family businesses, with Andry responsible for Injet and his wife handling the affairs of Domapub.

In May 2007, Andry Rajoelina purchased the Ravinala television and radio stations, and renamed them Viva TV and Viva FM.

Italy’s Former Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi

Silvio Berlusconi is well-known as a man of many trades: Prime Minister, media tycoon, football club-owner, bunga-bunga lover.

Der Spiegel reported that Berlusconi’s past included another role, that of professional crooner. In the 1950s and 60s, he sang and played double bass at the legendary Bar Kontiki on the Italian island of Elba, and performed as an entertainer on cruise liners in the Mediterranean.

After completing his secondary school education at a Salesian college, he studied law at the Università Statale in Milan, graduating (with honours) in 1961, with a thesis on the legal aspects of advertising.

Berlusconi was not required to serve the standard one-year stint in the Italian army which was compulsory at the time.

During his university studies, he was an upright bass player in a group formed with the now Mediaset Chairman and amateur pianist Fedele Confalonieri and occasionally performed as a cruise ship crooner.

Later life, he wrote A.C. Milan’s anthem with the Italian music producer and pop singer Tony Renis and Forza Italia’s anthem with the opera director Renato Serio. With the Neapolitan singer Mariano Apicella, he wrote two Neapolitan song albums: Meglio ‘na canzone in 2003 and L’ultimo amore in 2006.

Berlusconi, who stepped down from his third term as Italy’s prime minister in 2011, seems to never miss a chance to get back on stage. He recently wrote and recorded his own power ballads with singing partner Mariano Apicella.

Croatian Ex-President, Ivo Josipovic

Before venturing into politics, Ivo Josipovic was a classical music composer, who had written dozens of classical works and ran Croatia’s flagship music festival.

Josipovic was elected President in 2010 and vowed at the time not to give up his musical career, announcing that he would spend his spare time composing an opera on John Lennon’s death.

Unfortunately, Josipovic admitted later, the role of president had been too time-consuming to allow him to work on the opera, although he did manage to bring a piano into the presidential office.

After graduating from a secondary music school he enrolled at the Composition Department of the Zagreb Music Academy under the tutelage of renowned scholar Stanko Horvat.

He graduated in 1983 majoring in composition. Between 1987 and 2004, Josipović was also a lecturer at the Zagreb Music Academy.

Josipović composed some 50 chamber music pieces for various instruments, chamber orchestra and symphony orchestra.

In 1985, he won an award from the European Broadcasting Union for his composition “Samba da Camera” and in 1999, he was awarded the Porin Award for the same composition, which was followed by another Porin Award in 2000 for his piece titled “Tisuću lotosa” (“A Thousand Lotuses”).

His most successful pieces also include “Igra staklenih perli” (The Glass Bead Game) and “Tuba Ludens”. These pieces are performed by numerous musicians in Croatia and abroad.

Since 1991, Josipović also served as director of the Music Biennale Zagreb (MBZ), an international festival of contemporary classical music.

During the 2010 election campaign Josipović announced that as president he was ompose an opera based on the murder of John Lennon.

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