He was born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii - just two years after Hawaii became the 50th U.S. state - making him the only U.S. President born outside the continental United States.
Barack Obama served as the 44th President from 2009 to 2017, becoming the first African-American to hold the office. He succeeded George W. Bush and was followed by Donald Trump.
His mother was a white American from Kansas, and his father was from Kenya. After his parents separated, young Barack lived in Indonesia with his mother and stepfather before returning to Hawaii at age ten to live with his grandparents.
As a teenager, Obama worked at Baskin Robbins in Honolulu and went by the nickname "Barry." He claims the job put him off ice cream - at least as a regular treat.
Obama met Michelle Robinson while working at a law firm in Chicago. They married in 1992 and have two daughters, Malia (born 1998) and Sasha (born 2001).
Just months into his presidency, Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to strengthen diplomacy and international cooperation.
He won two Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word Album: one in 2006 for Dreams from My Father and another in 2008 for The Audacity of Hope. His wife Michelle won in the same category in 2020 for Becoming.
Although he struggled to quit smoking for years, Obama successfully kicked the habit in 2011 - reportedly helped along by chewing nicotine gum and the no-smoking policy at the White House.
In 2020, Obama published A Promised Land, a bestselling memoir about his presidency. He and Michelle also signed a Netflix deal through their company, Higher Ground Productions, to produce films and series.
Barack Obama is known for releasing annual music playlists and book recommendations, offering a mix of pop, hip-hop, jazz, and literary picks - proving he still has his finger on the cultural pulse.
