Former President Barack Obama is now a three-time Emmy winner. At the 2025 Creative Arts Emmy Awards, held Sunday, Sept. 7 in Los Angeles, Obama won Outstanding Narrator for Netflix’s Our Oceans.
The five-part natural history series, which premiered in November 2024, explores marine life across the Pacific, Indian, Atlantic, Arctic, and Southern Oceans. Produced by Freeborne Media and Wild Space Productions with executive producer James Honeyborne, the series takes viewers on a 75,000-mile journey across and beneath the seas.
This marks Obama’s third consecutive Emmy win. He previously won Outstanding Narrator for Our Great National Parks in 2022 and Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series for Working: What We Do All Day in 2023, both produced under his Higher Ground banner.
In the Outstanding Narrator category, Obama triumphed over a competitive slate that included Sir David Attenborough (Planet Earth: Asia), Idris Elba (Erased: WW2’s Heroes of Color), Tom Hanks (The Americas), and Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Octopus!).
Beyond his Emmys, Obama has also won two Grammy Awards — Best Spoken Word Album in 2006 for Dreams from My Father and again in 2008 for The Audacity of Hope. He has yet to secure an Oscar himself, though Higher Ground, the production company he co-founded with Michelle Obama, earned an Academy Award in 2020 for the documentary American Factory.
The honor adds to Obama’s growing list of cultural achievements, which also includes a Nobel Peace Prize. With his latest Emmy, he continues to solidify his standing as a post-presidential media figure shaping documentary storytelling.
The 2025 Creative Arts Emmys were presented Sept. 6–7 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. The full broadcast will air Saturday, Sept. 13, at 8 p.m. ET on FXX.