Barack Obama Scores Third Emmy Award, Making History Once Again

Former President Barack Obama has made history again, earning his third Emmy award. This time, he won Outstanding Narrator at the Creative Arts Emmys for his work on Our Oceans, a five-part Netflix documentary series that explores the beauty and importance of the world’s oceans.

The series premiered on November 20, 2024, and takes viewers on a 75,000-mile journey across the Pacific, Indian, Atlantic, Arctic, and Southern oceans. The documentary emphasizes how human actions on land affect marine life and highlights the need for ocean conservation.

Obama has now won three Emmys, having previously been recognized for Our Great National Parks in 2022 and Working: What We Do All Day in 2023, both also produced for Netflix.

For this year’s award, he competed against notable narrators including David Attenborough for Planet Earth: Asia, Idris Elba for Erased: WW2’s Heroes of Color, Tom Hanks for The Americas, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge for Octopus!.

The Guardian praised Our Oceans for its stunning cinematography and noted that Obama’s narration is “soothing and authoritative, enhancing the viewing experience”. Meanwhile, The Daily Beast highlighted the documentary’s humor, saying the “goofy narration adds charm while emphasizing the importance of ocean ecosystems”.

The series was executive produced by James Honeyborne, known for Blue Planet II, and produced by Freeborne Media and Wild Space Productions.

While Obama was not present at the Emmy ceremony, his achievement adds to his impressive list of accolades, which already includes a Grammy Award. He is not the first U.S. President to receive an Emmy, Dwight Eisenhower received the Governors Award in 1956, but Obama is the first to win a competitive Emmy for a specific television project.

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