Barack Obama
Birthdate: Aug 4, 1961
Birthplace: Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama II was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. His mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was a white American from Wichita, Kansas. His father, Barack Obama Sr., who was black, was from Alego, Kenya. They were both young college students at the University of Hawaii. When his father left for Harvard, his mother and Barack stayed behind, and his father ultimately returned alone to Kenya, where he worked as a government economist. Barack's mother remarried an Indonesian oil manager and moved to Jakarta when Barack was six. He later recounted Indonesia as simultaneously lush and a harrowing exposure to tropical poverty. He returned to Hawaii, where he was brought up largely by his grandparents. The family lived in a small apartment - his grandfather was a furniture salesman and an unsuccessful insurance agent and his grandmother worked in a bank - but Barack managed to get into Punahou School, Hawaii's top prep academy. His father wrote to him regularly but, though he traveled around the world on official business for Kenya, he visited only once, when Barack was ten. Obama attended Columbia University, but found New York's racial tension inescapable. He became a community organizer for a small Chicago church-based group for three years, helping poor South Side residents cope with a wave of plant closings. He then attended Harvard Law School, and in 1990 became the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review. He turned down a prestigious judicial clerkship, choosing instead to practice civil-rights law back in Chicago, representing victims of housing and employment discrimination and working on voting-rights legislation. He also began teaching at the University of Chicago Law School, and married Michelle Robinson (now Michelle Obama, a fellow attorney; their daughters are Sasha Obama and Malia Obama. Eventually, he was elected to the Illinois state senate, where his district included both Hyde Park and some of the poorest ghettos on the South Side. In 2004, Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat, representing Illinois, and he gained national attention by giving a rousing and well-received keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. In 2008 he ran for President, and despite having only four years of national political experience, he won. In January 2009, he was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, and the first African-American ever elected to that position. Obama was re-elected to a second term in November 2012 - and was sworn in in January 2013. His presidential term ended in January 2017
Filmography
actor
Previous (11)
- 2024 | Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve StoryasSelf - 44th President of the United States
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story
Reeve's rise to becoming a film star follows with a near-fatal horse-riding accident in 1995 that left him paralyzed from the neck down. After the accident, he became an activist for spinal cord injury treatments and disability rights.
- 2022 | Gabby Giffords Won’t Back DownasSelf
Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down
Looking at the former congresswoman's courage and perseverance in the aftermath of the 2011 assassination attempt that left her partially paralyzed and with a language impairment, aphasia.
- 2020 | The Way I See ItasSelf
The Way I See It
Former Chief Official White House Photographer Pete Souza's journey as a person with top secret clearance and total access to the President.
- 2019 | Bethany Hamilton: UnstoppableasSelf
Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable
After losing an arm to a shark attack at age 13, Bethany Hamilton refuses to give up her dreams of being a professional surfer.
- 2019 | The River and the WallasSelf
The River and the Wall
Five friends travel from El Paso to the Gulf of Mexico along the Rio Grande via bicycle, horseback, and canoe, exploring the relationship between the river and the proposed wall along America's border with Mexico.
- 2018 | On Her ShouldersasSelf
On Her Shoulders
Nadia Murad, a 23-year-old Yazidi, survived genocide and sexual slavery committed by ISIS. Repeating her story to the world, this ordinary girl finds herself thrust onto the international stage as the voice of her people.
- 2018 | Pope Francis: A Man of His WordasSelf - Former President
Pope Francis: A Man of His Word
Pope Francis travels the world speaking to those in need and delivering a message of hope.
- 2018 |
- 2016 | ’85: The Greatest Team in Football HistoryasSelf
’85: The Greatest Team in Football History
1985 Chicago Bears. This movie will reveal the full story behind the 1985 Super Bowl Shuffle Chicago Bears.
- 2018 | The Final YearasSelf
The Final Year
A chronicle of the Barack Obama administration's foreign policy team and the events of Obama's final year in office.
- 2017 | An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to PowerasSelf
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power
A decade after An Inconvenient Truth (2006) brought climate change to the heart of popular culture, the follow-up shows just how close we are to a real energy revolution.
