Barack Obama's Journey From U.S. President To Emmy-Winning Hollywood Star

Pop culture icons turning into presidents is nothing new — think former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. However, the opposite transition from president to pop culture behemoth is far rarer. So, who better to blaze that trail than the first Black president, Barack Obama, who became the first U.S. president to win a competitive Emmy in 2022? 

After completing his second presidential term in January 2017, Obama has continued this political work as a campaigner for candidates such as his former VP, President Joe Biden. But he's also branched out creatively, publishing several books, hosting a podcast with Bruce Springsteen, and establishing a production company with his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, called Higher Ground Productions in 2018.

Since then, the Obamas' company has produced four feature films, several television programs, documentaries, and podcasts. For the former president, his inspiration can be traced back to one thing: storytelling. "We all have a sacred story," Barack said in an interview with filmmakers Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar that he shared a clip of on X, formerly known as Twitter. "A story that gives us meaning and purpose and how we organize our lives."

In the clip posted to former President Barack Obama's X account, he and his wife, Michelle Obama, talk about how they've focused their efforts on sharing meaningful, impactful stories since leaving the White House. Barack said, "We want to be in relationships with people and connect with them and work together with them. People trust us with their story, and that's a huge responsibility, but we feel so lucky."

The first project released by Higher Ground was a documentary called "American Factory," which received an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, among other impressive accolades. The production company also released story-focused documentaries like "Crip Camp" (2020), "Becoming" (2020), "Descendant" (2022), and "American Symphony" (November 2023). Two of Higher Ground's productions, "Our Great National Parks" and "Working: What We Do All Day," saw Barack Obama take a more forward-facing approach as a narrator.

The former president's role in these documentary series would garner Barack two Emmy Awards for Best Narration, making him the first U.S. president to win a competitive award from the Television Academy. (The only other president to win an Emmy was former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who won the Primetime Emmy Governors Award in 1956.)

Barack and Michelle Obama's 2023 feature film "Leave the World Behind," based on the 2020 novel by Rumaan Alam, had many people raising their eyebrows at the idea of a former presidential couple producing a movie about global terrorism, widespread apathy, and the fall of modern society. The former president addressed this disconnect between their optimistic political identities and their creative pursuits in a December 2023 New York Times interview. 

"It's taken a while for us to remind our team at Higher Ground, as well as the creative community in Hollywood, that this isn't like Masterpiece Theatre — not everything we do has to fit on PBS. We are known to watch other things," Barack said. He revealed that he enjoys dystopian sci-fi and thrillers, whereas Michelle prefers more lighthearted, inspiring stories. "Michelle jokes that my favorite movies involve horrible things happening to people, and then they die," he riffed.

Despite the former president's predisposition to darker stories, Higher Ground Productions has no problem pursuing peppier projects like the children's series "Waffles + Mochi" and "AdaTwist, Scientist." And while the Obamas are showing no signs of slowing down — or limiting the scope of — their production company, the former president insisted to The New York Times, "Michelle and I do not aspire to be full-time Hollywood moguls." Still, with Emmys, Grammys, and a presidency under his belt, it doesn't seem like they're too far off.