Viola Davis Is 'Excited and Terrified' to Release Her Memoir, 'Finding Me'

Viola Davis is telling her story. The Oscar-winning actress is working on a memoir, to be released next year in partnership with Ebony Magazine Publishing, announced HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, on Wednesday.

Described as "a true hero's journey," Finding Me will encompass the actress's childhood in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to her defining career as a trail-blazing Tony, Oscar and Primetime Emmy Award-winning actress, philanthropist and CEO/CoFounder of JuVee Productions. The book will also detail her journey overcoming obstacles to become the most nominated Black actress in the history of the Academy Awards.

"Viola Davis is a powerful truth teller -- through her work on stage and screen, as well as in her life," HarperOne president and publisher Judith Curr said in a statement. "I'm looking forward to working with her on a book that powerfully reveals the risk and danger for a Black woman living in the fullness of her talents and gifts -- and the reward and freedom that comes with it."

In a tweet sharing the news, Davis shared that she is "both excited and terrified to share," her upcoming work. 

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Coming off her award-winning turn as legendary blues singer Ma Rainey in the Netflix film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Davis will next portray one of the most beloved former first ladies, Michelle Obama, in Showtime's scripted anthology series The First Lady. 

"I am in the place of a little bit of fear, well, I am not going to lie, a lot of fear," she told ET about preparing to play Obama, revealing she's done it all. "I started last year... I had the privilege and honor and blessing to be able to talk to her and read her book of course, watch her documentary, look at every video."

Davis added that Obama "is all things. She is a hero. She is just one of those women and people who lives a life bigger than herself and I hope to honor that. [We've been doing] makeup tests at my house with my makeup artist and they are doing an extraordinary job with the transformation of it all."

Finding Me will be released by HarperOne on April 19, 2022. 

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