Hidden Figures

IS BASED ON…

Hidden Figures – Margot Lee Shetterly

‘Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race‘ is a non-fiction book published in 2016 and the basis of the film Hidden Figures which was also released the same year.

The story is about African-American women in the ’60s who worked as human computers to solve problems for engineers and other workers at NASA. Initially, the three women who the book focuses on, worked in a segregated workplace and were kept in the background but eventually overcame discrimination and racial segregation to become three historical figures in American history.

Margot Lee Shetterly started working on the book in 2010 and rights to the then unpublished work was acquired by producer Donna Gigliotti in 2015. Allison Schroeder, who interned at NASA during her teenage years wrote the script with director Theodore Melfi and snagged an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

The film also received two other Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress for Octavia Spencer. The book reached #1 on New York Times Non-Fiction Best Sellers list.