Janelle Monae to Star in Taraji Henson-led Drama about Black Women Mathematicians

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Janelle Monae is making a leap on to the big screen in an upcoming drama about Black women mathematicians working at NASA in the 1950s. Hidden Figures also stars Taraji P. Henson and Octavia Spencer as mathematicians.

Monae will play Mary Jackson, Variety reports.
The film is based on Margot Lee Shetterly's forthcoming book Hidden Figures: The Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race which will drop this September.

The film, directed by Ted Melfi, centers on three African-American women who were involved in NASA's Friendship 7 mission, which resulted in astronaut John Glenn become the first American to orbit the Earth in February 1962.

This seems a perfect fit for Monae who has long been publicly fascinated with space travel. The film will be in theaters in 2017.