Former President Barack Obama won the outstanding narrator Emmy Award for his work on the Netflix documentary “Our Great National Parks” Saturday night (Sept. 3) at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony. Moments later, the streaming giant tweeted congratulations to Obama, 61, for making history as the first president to win a competitive Emmy. The Associated Press noted that Obama is the second president to have an Emmy. Dwight D. Eisenhower was given a special Emmy Award in 1956 while still in office.
The docuseries is a five-part show about national parks around the world. Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama produced the series through their production company Higher Ground. Obama faced strong competition for the Emmy. The other nominees included Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Black Patriots: Heroes Of The Civil War), David Attenborough (The Mating Game), Lupita Nyong’o (Serengeti II) and W. Kamau Bell (We Need To Talk About Cosby). The AP highlighted that this win marks the halfway point for Obama to join an elite group of just 17 people who have achieved the coveted EGOT status.
EGOT refers to winning an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony. He previously won Grammy Awards for his audiobook reading of two of his memoirs, “The Audacity of Hope” and “Dreams From My Father.” According to PEOPLE, Higher Ground won the Oscar for best documentary feature in 2020 for “American Factory,” but Obama was not included in the award. At the award ceremony, the late Chadwick Boseman was honored with a posthumous Emmy for outstanding character voiceover for T’Challa in the animated series “What If…?” from Disney+ and Marvel Studios.
