EXCLUSIVE: The Big Bang Theory star Mayim Bialik will write and direct As Sick As They Made Us, a comedy drama feature film based on her own experiences that will mark her screenwriting and helming debut.

Anne Clements (Stage Mother, Quinceañera) and Ash Christian (After Everything, Burn) are aboard to produce the pic, which will be executive produced by Clay Epstein of Film Mode Entertainment. Film Mode is repping world rights and handling the pic’s market premiere this week at the Toronto Film Festival.

The plot centers on a divorced mother who struggles to help her estranged brother visit their father on his deathbed. The death throws the family into disarray as she attempts to cultivate new love and manage her relationship with her difficult mother and brother. Casting is underway.

“Growing up surrounded by mental illness is not something that is easy to write about, nor is it easy to live through,” Bialik said. “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.”

The news comes after CBS’ Big Bang Theory wrapped its historic 12-year run in May. The final episode earned three Emmy nominations.

Bialik, the author of four books with a PhD in neuroscience, starred as a kid on Blossom. She scored four Emmy noms, a SAG Award nom and won a Critics’ Choice Award for playing Amy Farrah Fowler on BBT. Her production shingle Sad Clown Productions recently inked a multi-year pod and talent-holding deal with Big Bang producer WBTV.

She is repped by WME, Mosaic and Katz Golden Rosenman LLC.