Looking Back at the Obamas’ Higher Ground Netflix Movies and Shows

The coming split of Higher Ground, the production company founded by Barack and Michelle Obama, and Netflix will mark the end of — or at least a sizable change to — what’s been a productive relationship.

The Obamas founded Higher Ground in 2018 and signed a deal with Netflix to produce both feature films and series projects for the streamer. Their first project made an immediate splash: The company joined Participant Media as a producer of American Factory, a documentary that would win the Oscar for best feature doc in 2020.

In its eight years at Netflix — the two companies extended their partnership with a first-look deal in 2024 — Higher Ground has produced more than 20 films and series, with a couple more on the way. That’s a good-sized output for most any production company over that span of time. It yielded considerably more finished results than Netflix’s deal with Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, which the Higher Ground pact is often compared to since the principals were not previously known as creatives (though the former Meghan Markle was an actress prior to marrying into Britain’s royal family).

In the past couple of years, though, Higher Ground has also set up projects at HBO (Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness with Larry David) and Laika (Audition) as the first-look deal allowed it to seek buyers other than Netflix. The company is branching into live theater with the Broadway revival of Proof and has produced a slate of podcasts as well.

Not every Higher Ground project has hit, of course: Several titles in the list below came and went with little fanfare, and the company has also had some high-profile executive turnover, most recently with the December 2025 departure of company president Vinnie Malhotra. Motion pictures head Tonia Davis left her role in 2024 (though she’s continued to work with the company as a producer), and Priya Swaminathan left as co-head of film and TV in 2021.

Separating from Netflix doesn’t necessarily mean Higher Ground won’t continue to do business with the streamer — just that it won’t be the first stop for new projects. Here’s a look at what the Netflix-Higher Ground partnership has produced.

Feature Films

The biggest of the four narrative features Higher Ground was involved with — by a long shot — was Leave the World Behind. Starring Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali and Ethan Hawke, the Sam Esmail-directed thriller released in late 2023 is one of Netflix’s biggest movies ever, based on the streamer’s internal data.

Higher Ground was also behind Rustin, a biopic about civil rights leader Bayard Rustin that earned Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations for star Colman Domingo; and Fatherhood, a dramedy starring Kevin Hart. Higher Ground aqcuired distribution rights to Worth, which starred Michael Keaton as Kenneth Feinberg, the administrator of a 9/11 victims compensation fund, after its Sundance premiere in 2020.

Feature Documentaries

Along with American Factory, Higher Ground was involved with the Oscar-nominated Crip Camp; Becoming, based partly on Michelle Obama’s memoir of the same name; and 2025’s Air Force Elite: Thunderbirds. Higher Ground also acquired 2022’s Descendant and 2023’s American Symphony after their festival premieres.

Unscripted Series and Specials

The former president is a three-time Emmy winner for outstanding narrator for the Higher Ground docuseries Our Great National Parks, Working: What We Do All Day and Our Oceans. Michelle Obama was nominated for an Emmy in 2023 for the special The Light We Carry, a conversation about her 2022 book between the former first lady and Oprah Winfrey.

Higher Ground also produced The G Word With Adam Conover, which highlights how government agencies intersect with people’s lives; basketball docuseries Starting 5 and Court of Gold; and the reality show The Later Daters, following six people over age 55 re-entering the dating world.

Scripted Series

Higher Ground produced the darkly comic crime show Bodkin, starring Will Forte, which premiered in 2024. That’s the only scripted series the company has backed so far, but two others are on the horizon. All the Sinners Bleed, from showrunner Joe Robert Cole and co-studio Amblin Television, is based on an S.A. Cosby novel about the first Black sheriff (Sope Dirisu) in a small Bible Belt county who is tracking a serial killer. The Altruists is a limited series about the rise and fall of crypto exchange FTX, starring Anthony Boyle and Julia Garner as the key figures in the saga — Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison.

Kids Series

Three kids series produced by Higher Ground premiered in 2021. First up was the food-centric puppet series Waffles + Mochi (followed by a 2022 spinoff, Waffles + Mochi’s Restaurant). Then came We the People, a series of animated shorts about civics; and Ada Twist, Scientist, based on the popular children’s book. The latter two were created by Chris Nee of Doc McStuffins. Ada Twist had the longest run of the three with 41 episodes over four seasons.