Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has become a symbol of hope as Ukrainians defend their country from the Russian invasion. As Russian forces began to close in on the Ukraine capital, Kyiv, over the weekend, Zelenskyy refused to leave his country, declaring he would fight back. "The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride," Zelenskyy told U.S. officials on Saturday. But the 44-year-old's rise to global attention is anything but ordinary. He isn't a career politician, and with fears of the Russian invasion possibly being the start of a wider war, Zelenskyy's family has very deep connections with World War II. After earning a law degree, Zelenskyy joined a comedy group in the late 1990s that became widely successful in Ukraine. The group's success launched his acting career, starring in various films. But Zelenskyy really rose to fame for the show "Servant of the People" in 2015. In the show, he played a high school history teacher whose rant on political corruption in Ukraine goes viral and results in him becoming president. Three years after the show's debut, the television production company behind it launched a political party named after the show and Zelenskyy ran for president in the 2019 election, unseating incumbent Petro Poroshenko by winning more than 73% of votes. His family fought and died during WWII and the president, who is Jewish, had family members who were killed by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. Three out of four brothers were killed by the Nazi's. Zelenskyy is the grandson of the one brother who survived.