Margot Lee Shetterly
Margot Lee Shetterly (born June 30, 1969) is an American nonfiction writer who has also worked in investment banking and media startups. Her first book, Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race (2016), is about African-American women mathematicians working at NASA who were instrumental to the success of the United States space program. She sold the movie rights while still working on the book, and it was adapted as a feature film of the same name, Hidden Figures (2016). For several years Shetterly and her husband lived and worked in Mexico, where they founded and published Inside Mexico, a magazine directed to English-speaking readers. Early life and education Margot Lee was born in 1969 in Hampton, Virginia. Her father named Robert Lee III worked as a research scientist at NASA's Langley Research Center, and her mother named Margaret G. Lee was an English professor at the historically black Hampton University. Lee grew up knowing many African-American families with members who worked at NASA. She attended Phoebus High School in 1975 and graduated from the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce. Career After college, she moved to New