Yaa Gyasi’s novel, Transcendent Kingdom has been secured by Sony Pictures Television and will be produced by Yvonne Orji as part of her first-look deal.
Yaa grew up in Huntsville, Alabama, although she was born in Mampong, the Eastern Region of Ghana in Africa.
Her highly anticipated debut book, Homegoing (Knopf, 2016), was honored with the 2017 Hemingway Award for debut fiction by PEN, the National Book Critics’ Circle’s John Leonard Award, and the American Book Award.
Granta named her a Best Young American Novelist in 2017; her short tales have appeared in Guernica, Callaloo, African American Review, and Granta. The American Academy in Berlin awarded her the Mary Ellen Von Der Heyden Fellowship in Fiction for 2018.
The story of the Ghanaian-American author’s second book is recounted from the viewpoint of Gifty, a neuroscientist-in-training who specializes in studying mouse behavior patterns related to addiction and despair.
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Gifty is on a methodical and spiritual journey to make sense of the pain she has witnessed all around her. She alternates between her youth as a first-generation Ghanaian growing up in rural Alabama and her current life in the Bay Area.
But even as she looks to science to solve the riddle surrounding her family’s death, she can’t help but be drawn back to parts of her early faith and struggle with the evangelical church that nurtured her—a place where redemption is still both enigmatic and alluring.
Orji who will develop the novel is a Nigerian-American comedian, actress, writer, producer, and author who has been nominated for an Emmy. She is most recognized for playing “Molly,” Issa Rae’s best friend, in the HBO comedy series Insecure.
Yvonne Orji was nominated for an Emmy in 2020 for Best Supporting Actress due to her performance. She inked a two-year first-look agreement with Sony Pictures Television last year.
Orji will create comedy and drama series for streaming and television as part of the agreement.
Yvonne Orji most recently starred in Vacation Friends 2, the 2021 Hulu comedy Vacation Friends’ sequel, and The Blackening, a horror comedy.
Previous projects she has worked on include voice acting in the Netflix animated series My Dad The Bounty Hunter and the comedy Night School by Malcolm D. Lee. In addition, she hosted and executive produced two HBO comedy specials, Momma, I Made It, and A Whole Me the following year, both on the HBO Max reality series My Mom, Your Dad.
She took readers on a trip through 25 life lessons in her debut book, Bamboozled by Jesus: How God Tricked Me into the Life of My Dreams (2021), which was inspired by her favorite book, the Bible, as well as her own experiences.
