Mayim Bialik to write and direct her first feature film

Actress Mayim Bialik is to make her screenwriting and directing debut with new comedy As Sick As They Made Us.

The Big Bang Theory star will draw from her own experiences when she makes the project, which revolves around a divorced mother who struggles to help her estranged brother visit their father on his deathbed. The character also attempts to cultivate new love and manage her relationship with her difficult mother and brother while they are all still reeling from the patriarch's death.

"Growing up surrounded by mental illness is not something that is easy to write about, nor is it easy to live through," Bialik told Deadline. "The challenges ripple out into the lives of children immersed in these families even as they try to make their own lives apart from the challenges they grew up with.

"After my father's passing four and a half years ago, I decided to explore the complexity of mental illness and familial responsibility - especially as it falls on women - as well as to highlight the redemptive nature of a family's love as they navigate death and continue to live life on their own terms."

Anne Clements and Ash Christian will serve as producers, while Clay Epstein of Film Mode Entertainment will executive produce the project, which is being marketed at the Toronto Film Festival this week.

The 43-year-old, who starred as a child actress in '90s TV show Blossom, is best known for her work on TV thanks to her Emmy-nominated role of Amy Farrah Fowler on The Big Bang Theory, which concluded earlier this year.

The movie news comes weeks after it was announced Bialik and her new production company Sad Clown had signed a production deal with Warner Bros. TV Group.