Barack Obama beats David Attenborough to win Best Narrator Emmy

Former US president Barack Obama has won the Best Narrator Emmy for his work on the Netflix documentary series, Our Great National Parks, beating heavyweights including Sir David Attenborough.

The five-part show, which features national parks from around the globe, is produced by Higher Ground, the production company founded jointly by the former US president and first lady Michelle Obama.

Obama was competing in a category full of famous nominees for the award handed out at Saturday (3 September) night’s Creative Arts Emmys, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, David Attenborough, and Lupita Nyong’o.

Obama is the second president to win an Emmy after Dwight D Eisenhower, who was given a special Emmy Award in 1956.

The president has previously won Grammy Awards for audiobook readings of two of his memoirs, The Audacity of Hope and A Promised Land.

Late actor Chadwick Boseman also won an Emmy for his voice work on Saturday.

The Black Panther star won for Outstanding Character Voiceover for the Disney Plus and Marvel Studios’ animated show What If...?

On the show, Boseman voiced his Black Panther character King T’Challa in an alternate universe where he becomes Star-Lord from Guardians of the Galaxy.

It was one of the last projects of Boseman, who died in 2020 of colon cancer at the age of 43.

Additional reporting by agencies