Press Releases
Girls Star Andrew Rannells to Publish Memoir in 2019
Grammy Award–winning and Tony Award–nominated stage, film, and television actor Andrew Rannells to write memoir scheduled for publication Spring 2019
Best known for his Tony-nominated performance as Elder Price in Broadway’s The Book of Mormon and his role as fan favorite, Elijah, on HBO’s Emmy Award–winning series Girls
(October 12, 2017, New York, NY) Crown Archetype, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, will publish a memoir by award-winning Broadway, film, and television actor Andrew Rannells. Scheduled for a Spring 2019 publication, the as yet untitled book will be released simultaneously in the United States and Canada in print and digital formats. Crown Archetype Senior Editor Matt Inman acquired North American, electronic book, audio, and first-serial rights from Bill Clegg at The Clegg Agency and will edit the book. The announcement was made today by Crown Archetype Vice President and Editorial Director Tricia Boczkowski.
Rannells’s candid, hilarious, and frequently moving memoir will chronicle his journey from Omaha, Nebraska, to New York City, where his dreams of becoming an actor on a Broadway stage are realized when he’s cast in the hit musical Hairspray. From growing up as a gay kid in the Midwest and discovering his love of theater to his early days in New York City where he moved to just after his nineteenth birthday, Rannells will share stories of audition and dinner theater hell and all of the relatable career, sexual, and life misadventures of a twentysomething hungry for success, love, and a decent apartment. One of Rannells’s essays appeared recently in the Modern Love column of the New York Times.
Says Mr. Inman, “Andrew is a true quadruple threat, possessing a writing talent that matches his well-established skill as an actor, singer, and performer. His story will resonate with anyone who has chased a dream against all odds, and at times, all reason. But it is his insight into the ways we shape our lives and identities in our twenties—the pasts we leave behind, the new homes we make, the makeshift families we create, and the passions we won’t let anyone extinguish—that will linger with readers long after this book ends.”
Says Mr. Rannells, “This is by far the most personal project I have ever worked on. Being an author has always been a dream of mine and I am incredibly honored to be given this opportunity. I am excited to share these stories and I will try my absolute best not to embarrass my family. Too badly.”
Perhaps best known for his work on stage, Rannells originated the role of Elder Price in The Book of Mormon, for which he received a Tony and Drama Desk Award nomination. As a soloist on the show’s original cast recording, Rannells also received a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. Rannells continued his Broadway career as Hedwig in the 2014 Broadway revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch and King George III in the critically lauded Hamilton. Rannells most recently played the role of Whizzer in the 2016 Broadway revival of Falsettos, for which he received his second Tony nomination.
On the small screen, Rannells is best known for his role as Elijah Krantz in the HBO series Girls opposite Lena Dunham. He also previously appeared in season two of Steven Soderbergh’s The Knick on Cinemax and NBC’s The New Normal. His upcoming television projects include NBC’s Will & Grace revival, Amazon’s The Romanoffs, and Showtime’s Ball Street. On the big screen, Rannells can be seen in films such as 2016’s Why Him?, alongside James Franco, Bryan Cranston, and Zoey Deutch. Rannells also starred in 2015’s The Intern alongside Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro and will next be seen in the upcoming Paul Feig feature A Simple Favor.
For more information and to sign up for updates, visit andrewrannellsbook.com.
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Crown Archetype is an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Penguin Random House (penguinrandomhouse.com) is the world’s first truly global trade book publisher. It was formed on July 1, 2013, upon the completion of an agreement between Bertelsmann and Pearson to merge their respective trade publishing companies, Random House and Penguin, with the parent companies owning 75 percent and 25 percent, respectively. Penguin Random House comprises the adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction print and digital trade book publishing businesses of Penguin and Random House in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and India; Penguin’s trade publishing activity in Asia and South Africa; DK worldwide; and Random House’s companies in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, and Chile. Penguin Random House employs more than 10,000 people globally, across almost 250 editorially and creatively independent imprints and publishing houses that collectively publish over 15,000 new titles annually. Its publishing lists include more than seventy Nobel Prize laureates and hundreds of the world’s most widely read authors.