Celebrity moderators for Michelle Obama book tour set to include Oprah, Ellen, Tyler Perry

Michelle Obama is adding some star power to her forthcoming book tour, with Ellen DeGeneres, Oprah Winfrey, David Letterman, Hoda Kotb and Tyler Perry among the big names poised to take the stage alongside the former first lady.

Former daytime talk show host DeGeneres will join Obama for the kickoff of her national book tour for “The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times,” in Washington on Nov. 15, Live Nation and publisher Crown announced Wednesday.

Other tour stops in cities such as Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles will include poet Elizabeth Alexander, “CBS This Morning’s” Gayle King, Conan O’Brien, “Black-ish” star Tracee Ellis Ross, journalist Michele Norris and author Heather McGhee.

“For me, ‘The Light We Carry’ book tour will be about starting important conversations and digging deeper into the questions that all of us are grappling with as we live through uncertain times,” Obama said in a statement about the moderator lineup.

“I can’t wait to get back on the road and dive into it with such a thoughtful, impressive group of moderators,” the former first lady said.

The tour launches the same day as Obama’s latest book is released next month. Organizers said Wednesday that seven additional dates in six cities were added to the tour “due to overwhelming demand.”

The format for the book tour, complete with celebrity moderators, is similar to the events Obama held to tout her best-selling 2018 memoir, “Becoming.” Winfrey, Alexander and Norris all served as moderators as Obama promoted “Becoming” across the country.

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