  Over the past several years, optimal polynomial approximants (OPAs) have been
studied in many different function spaces. In these settings, numerous papers
have been devoted to studying the properties of their zeros. In this paper, we
introduce the notion of optimal polynomial approximant in the space $L^p$,
$1\leq p\leq\infty$. We begin our treatment by showing existence and uniqueness
for $1<p<\infty$. For the extreme cases of $p=1$ and $p=\infty$, we show that
uniqueness does not necessarily hold. We continue our development by
elaborating on the special case of $L^2$. Here, we create a test to determine
whether or not a given 1st degree OPA is zero-free in $\overline{\mathbb{D}}$.
Afterward, we shed light on an orthogonality condition in $L^p$. This allows us
to study OPAs in $L^p$ with the additional tools from the $L^2$ setting.
Throughout this paper, we focus many of our discussions on the zeros of OPAs.
In particular, we show that if $1<p<\infty$, $f\in H^p$, and $f(0)\neq 0$, then
there exists a disk, centered at the origin, in which all the associated OPAs
are zero-free. Toward the end of this paper, we use the orthogonality condition
to compute the coefficients of some OPAs in $L^p$. To inspire further research
in the general theory, we pose several open questions throughout our
discussions.
