LOS ANGELES — Rob Lowe is taking on a new role: author.

Publisher Henry Holt and Co. says it will release the 46-year-old actor’s memoir in May 2011.

The actor is handling the writing duties on “Stories I Only Tell My Friends,” which details his experiences as an actor and father.

Holt president Stephen Rubin described Lowe’s book as “a mid-career meditation on his four decades as an actor.”

Lowe became a teen heartthrob in 1983’s “The Outsiders” and has amassed more than three dozen film credits since then.

He is a star of the ABC drama “Brothers & Sisters” and recently appeared on the NBC sitcom “Parks and Recreation.”