The First Lady: O-T Fagbenle Tapped to Play Barack Obama in Showtime Drama

Showtime’s political drama The First Lady has sworn in another cast member: O-T Fagbenle (The Handmaid’s Tale) will play President Barack Obama in the upcoming anthology, opposite Viola Davis as Michelle Obama.

The First Lady, which snagged a series order at Showtime just over a year ago, will pull back the curtain on the personal and political lives of multiple first ladies throughout American history, starting in Season 1 with Michelle Obama, Betty Ford (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Eleanor Roosevelt (Gillian Anderson). As the series’ description teases, “In the East Wing of the White House, many of history’s most impactful and world-changing decisions have been hidden from view, made by America’s charismatic, complex and dynamic first ladies.”

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Barack Obama — the 44th president of the United States, and the country’s first African-American commander-in-chief — will be a recurring character on The First Lady. Fagbenle’s castmates also include Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight) as President Gerald Ford, Judy Greer (Archer) as Betty Ford’s social secretary Nancy Howe, Rhys Wakefield (True Detective) as Dick Cheney, Kristine Forseth (The Society) as a young Betty Ford and newcomer Jayme Lawson as a young Michelle Obama.

Fagbenle has co-starred on The Handmaid’s Tale since its first episode, playing Luke, the husband of Elisabeth Moss’ June. His TV credits also include the U.K. comedy Maxxx and HBO’s Looking.

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