Barack Obama wins Emmy and becomes first US president to do so in a competitive category

Former politician was honoured with Best Narrator at the Creative Arts Emmys

Barack Obama narrates 'Our Great National Parks', which is on Netflix from April 13. All photos: Netflix

'Our Great National Parks' is an endlessly fascinating and gorgeous exploration of some of the most beautiful and inspiring places on Earth.

Spanning five continents, it tells the story of the creatures that roam through the world's top national parks.

Kenya’s Tsavo National Park and Indonesia’s Gunung Leuser National Park feature in the documentary.

It also explores the waters of Monterey Bay, California, and the eclectic terrain of Chilean Patagonia, to name only a few.

Obama wants viewers to gaze in wonder and appreciate the innate beauty that these wild spaces have to offer.

The footage in the documentary is stunning.

Obama’s narration never comes close to reaching the heights of Sir David Attenborough’s dulcet tones, however.

In the fifth episode, it focuses on Gunung Leuser, and provides an all-encompassing view of the park’s ecosystem.

This includes intimate looks at tigers, forest elephants, orangutans and Sumatran rhinos, which are the smallest of the species.

Obama clearly has a vested interest and emotional connection to the preservation of national parks.

Barack Obama has become the first of any US presidents to win a competitive Emmy Award after he bagged the Best Narrator honour at the Creative Arts Emmys on Saturday.

Obama won the award for the Netflix documentary series, Our Great National Parks, which was produced by Higher Ground, the production company he started with Michelle Obama.

Dwight D Eisenhower, America's 34th president, was given a special Emmy in 1956, to honour his contribution to television and the arts.

Obama beat other big-name nominees to the award, including Sir David Attenborough, former basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o.

"Congrats to President Barack Obama who just became the first President to win a competitive Emmy for narrating Our Great National Parks," Netflix tweeted on Sunday.

Held as a precursor to the Primetime Emmys, which will take place on September 12 this year, the Creative Arts Emmys honour outstanding artistic and technical achievement on TV, including guest performances as well as exceptional work in the animation, reality and documentary categories.

It was held at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles this year over two nights, on Saturday and Sunday.

Another notable winner on Saturday was Adele, who won all five categories she was nominated in for her show Adele One Night Only, including Outstanding Variety Special.

Chadwick Boseman, who died from colon cancer in 2020, was honoured posthumously for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance for the Disney+ animated series What If...?.

Squid Game, which recently made history as the first non-English show to be nominated in top categories at the Primetime Emmys, also began its winning streak, earning Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for Lee Yoo-mi.

With his win, Obama is halfway through an Egot status, which refers to a special group of people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony. Only 17 people belong to that hallowed group.

The former president won a Grammy Award in 2020 for his audiobook reading of two of his memoirs, The Audacity of Hope and A Promised Land.