Singer Janelle Monáe is the latest to be cast in the Fox drama Hidden Figures, and she joins Taraji P. Henson and Octavia Spencer in the film about three mathematicians who were the brains behind NASA’s Friendship 7 mission in 1962.
The film is based on the upcoming book by Margot Lee Shetterly, Hidden Figures: The Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race, which HarperCollins will publish in September.
Monáe stars as the youngest mathematician, Mary Jackson, and Henson plays Katherine Johnson, with Spencer playing Dorothy Vaughan. Rounding out the cast is Kevin Costner, as the head of the space program.