“Orange Is the New Black”’s Uzo Aduba Recalls the Unexpected Person Who Taught Her to Love Her Tooth Gap (Exclusive)

In her new memoir 'The Road Is Good: How a Mother's Strength Became a Daughter's Purpose,' the Emmy winner details coming to terms with her signature smile

Uzo Aduba skyrocketed to fame as Orange Is the New Best’s Crazy Eyes, but the actress wants people to know what happened before — and after — she ended up in Litchfield Penitentiary.

In her upcoming memoir The Road Is Good: How a Mother's Strength Became a Daughter's Purpose (out Sept. 24), Aduba, 43, honors her mother Nonyem, who died in November 2020 from pancreatic cancer, and recounts growing up as a Nigerian American in a predominately white Massachusetts suburb, discovering her love of acting, studying her craft at Boston University and pursuing her dreams in New York City before landing her breakout role in Orange Is the New Black.

She also talks about meeting her husband Robert Sweeting after years of struggling to date in N.Y.C. and tying the knot with the filmmaker in an intimate backyard wedding in September 2020 so her mom could see them say “I do” before she died.

Related: Uzo Aduba To Publish Memoir That Details ‘Final Account’ of Mother’s Life: 'My Greatest Growth' (Exclusive)

“I'm excited to share my story,” Aduba tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “I hope that people see themselves in this story, whether it's because you're from an immigrant family or you felt like you stood outside of something.”

The mom of 10-month-old daughter Adaiba heavily details her experience with being raised by two Nigerian immigrant parents and how she learned to embrace and love her Nigerian culture.

“It's such a big part of who I am,” the Emmy winner says. “Being first-generation is so much a part of the identity of anybody who is from somewhere else. Whether that's my mom's experience of what it's like for her to come to America as a Nigerian immigrant, or it's helping to contextualize who I am and what my American experience was like growing up in this very, very much American neighborhood, it's impossible to separate the Nigeria that I was experiencing at home and how that informs my identity today, how I've come to parts of myself that I once pushed away or rejected and then fully accepted.”

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In an excerpt from The Road Is Good — the English translation of Aduba’s full Igbo first name, Uzoamaka — she opens up about feeling self-conscious about the gap between her two front teeth and how she came to love her appearance.

I didn’t care, as a teenager, that the space between my two front teeth — the Anyaoku gap, as my family called it — was a sign of beauty and wisdom in Africa. All my friends had braces, and they’d come off revealing straight, “perfect” teeth. My mother ignored all my pleas for the orthodontist, so I stopped smiling in public and especially in photos. I practiced speaking with my mouth mostly closed too.

For my senior class photos, I chose a few different outfits, and I borrowed a pair of my mother’s earrings. I got on well with the photographer — a nice guy who put me at ease during the session, even cracking a few jokes along the way. Then, at one point, he lowered his camera.

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“Why do you keep making that face in pictures?” he asked. He lifted the corners of his mouth in an imitation, as if something sour were under my tongue.

“I don’t know,” I said.

“Really, why?” asked the photographer. “Why aren’t you smiling?” He kept pressing until I had no choice.

“I don’t like my gap,” I muttered. He studied me for a moment and then said, “I think you have a beautiful smile.” 

Related: Uzo Aduba Welcomes First Baby, Daughter Adaiba: 'I've Joined the Club'

While I can’t say exactly what changed in me, I was born that day. I didn’t give up a single flash of teeth for the photos, but I still walked away believing it, for the first time: I have a beautiful smile.

My mother hated it when I told this story. “Your entire life,” I can hear her say. “I told you your entire life.” Sorry: For whatever reason, this guy said it, and I was proud.

Adapted from THE ROAD IS GOOD by Uzo Aduba. To be published on September 24, 2024, by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright © 2024 by Uzo Aduba

The Road Is Good: How a Mother's Strength Became a Daughter's Purpose will be released Sept. 24 from Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House, and is available for preorder now, wherever books are sold.

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