Lupita Nyong o

Biography

Lupita Nyong'o was born in Mexico City when her politician father was a visiting lecturer. The family moved back to Kenya when she was a year old. Years later her parents sent her back to Mexico to learn Spanish, and Nyong'o set out abroad for her college education as well, this time to the United States to attend both Hampshire College and Yale University. 

During her time in school, she appeared in several stage productions. Following graduation, she made her initial foray into movies behind the camera, working on the production teams of films such as "The Constant Gardener" (2005) and "The Namesake" (2006). In 2009, she created, directed, produced, and edited a documentary entitled "In My Genes" for her final thesis project at Hampshire. 

The project - focusing on the societal and personal challenges faced by Kenya's albino population - was a coming home for Nyong'o, who moved back to Nairobi around this time. Once there, she produced a video for MTV and eventually starred in a TV series, "Shuga." All of these achievements paled, however, compared to her casting as Patsey in director Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" (2013). 

Nyong'o's searing performance was widely praised by both critics and audiences and resulted in the rising young star winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Following a supporting part in the Liam Neeson/Julianne Moore thriller "Non-Stop" (2014), Nyong'o next appeared in a motion-capture CGI role as Maz Katana in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" (2015), a role she repeated in "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" (2017). 

In between, Nyong'o essayed a voice role as Raksha in Jon Favreau's "The Jungle Book" (2016) and starred opposite David Oyelowo in the sports biography "Queen of Katwe" (2016). In 2018, she joined the all-star cast of the Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster "Black Panther" (2018).