 Zaseda was born in a village near Kharkiv, then studied in Mariupol and then moved to Kyiv, where he graduated from the Taras Shevchenko National University with a degree in journalism.He then worked as a sports commentator for a regional newspaper, and eventually became an established writer and president of the Kyiv Journalist Union.He was the author or co-author of 30 books, including five novels, some of which had been translated into multiple languages.