Margot Lee Shetterly
Shetterly in 2016
Born	(1969-06-30)June 30, 1969 (age 56) Hampton, Virginia, U.S.
Occupation	Writer
Alma mater	University of Virginia (BS)
Subject	Black history, women's history
Notable awards	Sloan Fellowship,Virginia Foundation for the Humanities Fellow
Spouse	Aran Shetterly
Website
www.margotleeshetterly.com

Margot Lee Shetterly (born June 30, 1969) is an Americannonfiction 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 atNASA who were instrumental to the success of theUnited 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).^[1] For several years Shetterly and her husband lived and worked inMexico, where they founded and publishedInside Mexico, a magazine directed to English-speaking readers.

Margot Lee was born on June 30 1969, inHampton, Virginia. Her father, Robert Lee III, worked as a research scientist at NASA'sLangley Research Center,^[2][3] and her mother, Margaret G. Lee, was an English professor at thehistorically blackHampton University.^[4] Lee grew up knowing manyAfrican-American families with members who worked at NASA. She attendedPhoebus High School in 1987 and graduated from theUniversity of Virginia'sMcIntire School of Commerce.

After college, she moved to New York and worked several years in investment banking, first on the Foreign Exchange trading desk atJ.P. Morgan, then onMerrill Lynch's Fixed Income Capital Markets desk. She shifted to the media industry, working at a variety of startup ventures, including theHBO-funded website Volume.com.

In 2005, Shetterly and her husband moved to Mexico to found an English-language magazine calledInside Mexico.^[5] Directed to the numerous English-speakingexpats in the country, it operated until 2009. From 2010 through 2013, the couple worked as content marketing and editorial consultants to the Mexican tourism industry.

Shetterly began researching and writingHidden Figures in 2010. In 2014, she sold the film rights to the book toWilliam Morrow, an imprint ofHarperCollins, and it was optioned byDonna Gigliotti of Levantine Films.^[6][7] The book and featurefilm adaptation were both released in 2016. The film starsTaraji P. Henson,Octavia Spencer,Janelle Monáe, andKevin Costner. It was nominated for several awards, including threeOscar nominations (Best Picture,Best Adapted Screenplay andBest Supporting Actress for Octavia Spencer).

In 2013, Shetterly founded The Human Computer Project, an organization whose mission is to archive the work of all of the women who worked ascomputers and mathematicians in the early days of theNational Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and theNational Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).^[8]

In 2018, Shetterly published a children's picture book,Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race. The book was illustrated by Laura Freeman.^[9]

Margot Lee married Aran Shetterly, a writer and historian.^[10]

• Hidden Figures: The Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race. William Morrow/HarperCollins, 2016.ISBN 9780062363596.
• NASA-Langley Women's History Month 2014 Keynote: "Hidden Figures: The Female Mathematicians of NACA and NASA"
• Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race, HarperCollins, 2018.ISBN 978-0062742469. Children's picture book.

• Shetterly received a 2014 Book Grant from theAlfred P. Sloan Foundation^[11] for her bookHidden Figures. This first nonfiction work went on to win the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award.^[12]
• Shetterly has received two grants from theVirginia Foundation for the Humanities for her work on The Human Computer Project.^[13]
• She also won the 2017NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Nonfiction.^[14]
• On May 12, 2018, Shetterly was awarded an honoraryDoctor of Humane Letters degree fromWorcester Polytechnic Institute at its 150th Commencement exercises.^[15]
• She received Mathical Honors forHidden Figures^[16]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toMargot Lee Shetterly.

• Margot Lee Shetterly website
• The Human Computer Project
• Hidden Figures, HarperCollins site
• "Margot Lee Shetterly Wants To Tell More Black Stories". Interview by Ann Marie Cox,The Telegraph., 13 September 2016.
• Appearances onC-SPAN

• 1969 births
• Living people
• 21st-century American writers
• 21st-century American women writers
• Merrill (company) people
• McIntire School of Commerce alumni
• People from Hampton, Virginia
• Writers from Virginia
• 21st-century African-American women writers
• 21st-century African-American writers
• 20th-century African-American writers
• 20th-century African-American women

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from July 2016
• Commons category link from Wikidata
• People appearing on C-SPAN