By Ron Wynn
NASHVILLE, TN — Former President Barack Obama has added yet another award to his impressive list. Over the weekend he became the first president to win a Competitive Emmy. He was the ultimate winner in an impressive list of nominees in the category of Outstanding Narrator. The others nominated were Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, David Attenborough, W. Kamau Bell, and Lupita Nyong’o. The former President won for his narration in the Netflix documentary series “Our Great National Parks.” In addition to Netflix, other participants in the documentary were Freeborne Media and Obama’s own Higher Ground Productions.
Before Obama, the first President to be honored in the category was Dwight D. Eisenhower. He received a Primetime Emmy Governors Award in 1956 for his “appreciation of television,” the year after he held the first televised press conference. As well as the Emmy, Obama has also won the Nobel Peace Prize and two Grammys, putting him halfway to an EGOT. He is the first person to win the presidency and Emmy, Nobel, and Grammy honors.
The former President wasn’t the only one making history. The late Chadwick Boseman won a posthumous Emmy for Outstanding Character Voice-Over for T’Challa in the animated series “What If…?” from Disney+ and Marvel Studios. Boseman made huge contributions to the Marvel Universe, most notably his performances as T’Challa in “Captain America: Civil War” and “Black Panther” as well as “Avengers: End Game.” His voice work as Star-Lord T’Challa in the animated series was one of his last projects. The show aired on Disney+ almost a year after his passing. Created by head writer A. C. Bradley and directed by Bryan Andrews, “What If…?” premiered on the Disney+ streaming platform in August 2021, marking Marvel’s first animated series. The anthology show explores alternate timelines in the multiverse that show what would happen if major moments from the MCU films occurred differently.
Boseman died of colon cancer in August 2020 at 43, His legacy remains prominent. especially with the upcoming sequel “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” scheduled to hit theaters in November.
The original film became the first superhero movie to be nominated for best picture, ultimately winning three Oscars (production design, costumes and original score).
