Washington - Former US President Barack Obama won the Emmy Award, adding to his growing bag of prizes and honors. Obama is just two awards away from being an EGOT, becoming the second ever American leader to get the prestigious statuette for “excellence” in the television industry.
An EGOT is a rare group who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony, with 17 people being part of this group to date. Obama has so far acquired two Grammys. He also received the Nobel Peace Prize after his 2008 presidential election win, for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."
The ex-US President won the “outstanding narrator” Emmy for “Our Great National Parks,” a five-episode Netflix documentary series, produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s own production company, “Higher Ground.”
Obama, the second US leader to be honored the top TV award, was not present at the Creative Arts Emmy ceremony at the Microsoft Theater in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday night to receive the statuette personally. Before Obama, Dwight D. Eisenhower also received a special Emmy Award in 1956 for becoming the first president to give a televised news conference.
Barack Obama won two Grammy Awards for an audiobook reading of two of his memoirs, “Dreams from My Father” in 2006 and “The Audacity of Hope” in 2008.
He also holds the Pentagon's highest medal for Distinguished Public Service, several foreign state honors, including from Israel and Saudi Arabia, over a dozen of honorary degrees from multiple US states.