Lupita Nyong’o

Lupita Amondi Nyong'o is an actress and author. She has earned multiple accolades throughout her career, including an Academy Award, an Actor Award, and a Daytime Emmy Award, along with nominations for a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award, and two British Academy Film Awards. She is widely recognized for her dramatic film roles, stage performances, motion-capture work, and voice acting.

Nyong'o was born on March 1, 1983, in Mexico City, Mexico, to Kenyan parents Dorothy Ogada Buyu and Anyang' Nyong'o, a political scientist and politician. Her family returned to Kenya when she was under a year old, and she spent her childhood primarily in Nairobi. Raised in an artistic household, she made her professional stage debut at age 14 playing Juliet in a Phoenix Players production of Romeo and Juliet. She later earned a bachelor's degree in film and theatre studies from Hampshire College and a master's degree in acting from the Yale School of Drama.

Nyong'o began her Hollywood career working on the production crew for films such as The Constant Gardener, The Namesake, and Where God Left His Shoes. In 2008, she made her screen acting debut in the short film East River and subsequently starred in the Kenyan television drama Shuga. In 2009, she wrote, directed, and produced In My Genes, a documentary examining the treatment of Kenya's albino population.

Nyong'o achieved her breakthrough in her first feature film role as Patsey in Steve McQueen's biographical drama 12 Years a Slave (2013). Her performance earned her widespread acclaim and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, making her the first Kenyan and first Mexican actress to win the honor. Following her film debut, she played the motion-capture character Maz Kanata in the Star Wars sequel trilogy (2015–2019) and provided the voice of the wolf Raksha in The Jungle Book (2016).

In 2015, Nyong'o starred in Danai Gurira's play Eclipsed, later making her Broadway debut in the production in 2016 and receiving a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play. She entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Nakia in Black Panther (2018) and returned for its sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022). She also starred in the comedy horror film Little Monsters (2019) and played a dual role in Jordan Peele's psychological horror film Us (2019).

Nyong'o's later projects include starring in the horror film A Quiet Place: Day One (2024), performing the lead voice role in the animated feature The Wild Robot (2024), and portraying Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra in Christopher Nolan's epic film The Odyssey (2026). Outside of feature film, she narrated the documentary series Serengeti, served as executive producer and voice actress for the animated series Super Sema, and wrote the children's book Sulwe, which became a number-one New York Times best-seller.