Barack Obama

Barack Obama served as the 44th President of the United States from 2009 to 2017. He made history as the first Black president in United States history.

Obama returned to Hawaii, his birthplace, at the age of 10 after briefly living in Indonesia with his mother after his parents split. He was raised from then on by his grandparents. In 1983, he graduated from Columbia University with a degree in political science, later moving to Chicago, where he became a community organizer and worked with low-income residents. He enrolled in Harvard Law School in 1988 and graduated in 1991.

In 1989, Obama met his now-wife, Michelle Obama, while working at the same law firm in Chicago. The couple married in 1992 and welcomed daughter Malia in 1998, followed by daughter Sasha in 2001.

Barack represented the 13th district in the Illinois Senate from 1997 until 2004 before being sworn in as a U.S. Senator in January 2005. He won the United States presidential election in November 2008 alongside running mate Joe Biden, defeating Republican candidate John McCain. Barack and Biden were reelected as President and Vice President in November 2012 over Republican candidate Mitt Romney.

Barack has published three bestselling books: Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (1995), The Audacity of Hope (2006) and A Promised Land (2020). He and Michelle founded their Higher Ground Productions company in 2018, signing a deal to create documentaries and more for Netflix. Their first film, American Factory, won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 2020.