Zelenskyy stars as Vasily Petrovych Goloborodko, a high-school history teacher in his thirties, who is unexpectedly elected President of Ukraine after a video filmed by one of his students goes viral, showing him making a profane rant against government corruption in his country.

While in office, Vasily is confused at his newfound responsibilities, but gradually eases into his presidential duties and decides to weed out corruption by the oligarchy in his government.

[8][9] Zelenskyy also portrays Grisha, a government employee who received plastic surgery to serve as Goloborodko's body double.

[13] The Russian channel TNT aired the pilot episode of the show's first series on 11 December 2019, claiming it did so as "a marketing move to raise awareness of the platform".

[13] TNT cut a scene from the episode in which president-elect Goloborodko asked if Russian President Vladimir Putin wore a Hublot watch, a joke referring to a well-known anti-Putin chant in Ukraine.

: An American remake was ordered by Hulu, with British writer Simon Farnaby involved in its development, though the show was scrapped when Donald Trump became the 45th president of the United States.

[46] After the premiere of the original show, the rights to make Poland-based remake were bought by Okil Khamidov, however no studio wanted to pick it up.

In 2022, in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Zelenskyy's wartime leadership, the original show's popularity received a notable boost internationally.