Viola Davis is 'both excited and terrified to share' her memoir Finding Me next April

HarperOne in partnership with Ebony Magazine Publishing announced Tuesday that they’ll put out Viola Davis’ $28.99, 288-page memoir Finding Me on April 19, 2022.

‘From my heart,’ the South Carolina-born 55-year-old – who boasts 12.4M social media followers – wrote on Instagram.

‘[I’m] both excited and terrified to share.’  

Viola’s announcement received glowing comments from her celeb pals Hoda Kotb, Reese Witherspoon, Sharon Stone, Holly Robinson Peete, Loni Love, Jill Scott, and Bobby Berk.

‘I believe that our stories, and the courage to share them, is the most powerful empathetic tool we have,’ Davis said in a statement.

‘This is my story… straight no chaser.’

The Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom actress has had an incredible career culminating in her being only a Grammy Award away from elite EGOT status. 

But Viola overcame an impoverished upbringing in Rhode Island living in apartments that were ‘condemned and rat-infested’ and she didn’t have a lot of friends.

‘I was one of those people that everyone knew, but I didn’t have a lot of friends. I didn’t date or do any of that stuff. I was overweight and very, very shy,’ Davis – a self-described ‘geek’ – told People in 2017.

‘I was definitely not a snazzy dresser and definitely didn’t wear make-up. I would jump in trash bins with maggots looking for food, and I would steal from the corner store because I was hungry.’

The How to Get Away with Murder producer-star earned a full scholarship to Rhode Island College, thanks to federal program TRIO Upward Bound, and went on to the prestigious Julliard School.    

‘It took many years of getting knocked down and getting back up to finally say, “Okay, I think I’m pretty tough. I’ve got this,”‘ Viola told the mag.

‘I was always looking for a way to express what was in me, my thoughts, and I found it through theater, so that was where I thrived. [Otherwise] I probably would have imploded.’

On June 23, Davis celebrated her 18th wedding anniversary with husband Julius Tennon, and the collaborative couple are parents of 11-year-old daughter Genesis.  

‘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.’

The Broadway veteran will next reprise her role as sociopathic government official Amanda Waller in James Gunn’s star-studded sequel The Suicide Squad, which hits UK/US theaters on August 6.