I CAN AND I WILL

Simon & Schuster will publish the first book from Golden Globe-winning and Critics Choice-nominated actress Gina Rodriguez. In I Can and I Will: Tools My Daddy Gave Me, the star of The CW Network/CBS Television Studio hit series “Jane the Virgin” will bring fans a warm, intelligent, and funny book that narrates her incredible journey and reveals the values that prepare her for success.

My father would always remind me to give away your blessings to make room for more. This book has been a dream of mine for many years now, a love letter to a father who has given me strength I only know is right to share with others. If you can move, stretch, teach, inspire, encourage and motivate others by telling your stories why wouldn't you? Thank you, Simon & Schuster, for giving me an opportunity to share the tools that have empowered me and hopefully will do the same for many more!

Even before her headline-making Golden Globe win in January, Gina Rodriguez was considered television’s new breakout star. Her profile has been rising steadily since her performance in Filly Brown at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012. She has been named the “Next Big Thing” and one of the “Top 35 Latinos Under 35” by the Hollywood Reporter; the Los Angeles Times has referred to her as “[an] ingénue who deserves to be discussed in the same breath as Elizabeth Olsen and Jennifer Lawrence.” She currently plays the title role in the AFI-, Peabody- and People’s Choice-winning series Jane the Virgin, which debuted to the network’s highest Monday night ratings in three years and has been picked up for a second season. She will soon begin filming Lionsgate’s Deepwater Horizon for director Peter Berg, where she will star opposite Mark Wahlberg, John Malkovich, and Kate Hudson.

Growing up in Chicago, Gina Rodriguez started performing at age seven. At sixteen, Gina was one of thirteen teens to be accepted into a competitive theater program at Columbia University. She fell in love with New York and NYU called her name—she later enrolled at the Tisch School of the Arts. Gina had four years of intense theatre training at both the Atlantic Theatre Company and Experimental Theatre Wing. Directly after graduation, Gina worked on stage and screen before landing the title role in Filly Brown. Her other indie work includes Sleeping with Fishes.