By PTI
LOS ANGELES: “The Handmaid’s Tale” star OT Fagbenle will play former US President Barack Obama in Showtime’s upcoming anthology series “The First Lady”.
Created by Aaron Cooley, the show is being touted as a revelatory reframing of American leadership, told through the lens of the women at the heart of the White House.
The first season of the show will focus on Eleanor Roosevelt, Betty Ford and Michelle Obama.
It will feature Viola Davis as Michelle Obama, Michelle Pfeiffer as Betty Ford and Gillian Anderson as Eleanor Roosevelt.
According to Deadline, Fagbenle will be recurring in the show, which will also star Aaron Eckhart, Rhys Wakefield, Judy Greer, Jayme Lawson and Kristine Froseth.
Cooley is writing the series and will also serve as the executive producer along with Cathy Schulman, Davis and Julius Tennon of JuVee Productions, Andrew Wang, Jeff Gaspin and Brad Kaplan.
Emmy winner Susanne Bier has come on board to direct the series.
Barack Obama served as the first African American and 44th president of the United States from 2009-17.
A member of the Democratic Party, Barack married Michelle Obama in 1992 before he became an Illinois state senator in 2005.
They are the parents of Malia and Sasha Obama.
Fagbenle, who broke out after playing Luke Bankole in Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale”, will next star in Marvel Studios’ “Black Widow”, co-starring Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, William Hurt and Rachel Weisz.
