Lupita Nyong’o is a Kenyan actress who was born in Mexico, raised in Kenya and educated in the United States.
She was born in 1983 to Dorothy Nyong’o and an academic turned politician father, Anyang ‘Nyong’o, the former Kenyan Minister of Medical Services who was elected to represent Kisumu County in the Kenya Senate in 2013 and the 2017 Governor became.
Her flair for acting began to manifestsince she was a child, she took part in school plays. Before she was 14, Lupita was already a member of a theater company, Phoenix Players, which provided a platform for her professional acting debut as Juliet in the play. Romeo and Juliet .
Convinced that all she wanted to be was an actress, the Kenyan beauty enrolled at Hampshire College in the US, where she earned a degree in film and drama.
Her debut feature film created, produced, directed and edited the documentary drama In My Genes That Was Her Thesis Project in HampshireThe film explores the personal and societal challenges faced by people with albinism in Kenya’s predominantly black society. The film played at various film festivals and in 2008 won first prize at the Five College Film Festival.
A few years later, Lupita enrolled at the Yale School of Drama and earned a master’s degree in acting.
During her time at Yale she appeared in many stage productions, including Gertrude Stein ‘s Doctor Faustus Lighting the Lights on Chekhov ‘s Uncle Vanya and Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and the Winter’s Tale .
Her credits include playing Perdita in The Winter’s Tale , (Yale Repertory Theatre), Sonya in Uncle Vanya Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew , as well as in Michael Mitnick’s original Elijah production .
In 2013, Lupita Nyong’o made her American film debut in Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave as Patsey, an enslaved black American woman who was an object of her master’s cruel affections. She was cast for the role three weeks before graduating from Yale Drama School and as a result of her passionate portrayal of the character Patsey, Lupita won her first Academy Award at the 86th Annual Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress.
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This huge win marked her seventh75 years after Hattie McDaniel won the first supporting actress award for her role as “Mammy” in the 1939 American romance film, Gone With the Wind. She also became the 15th actress to win an Oscar in her film debut and the first Kenyan and Mexican actress to win an Oscar.
In the meantime she has served on the production teams of some of the critically acclaimed films including The Constant Gardener (2005) directed by Fernando Mereilles and The Namesake (2006) directed by Mira Nair.
In October 2017, the Oscar winner of 12 Years a Slave , in an article on The New York Times, accused Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of sexually molesting her while she was a student at the Yale School of Drama. According to Lupita, she first met Weinstein in 2011 and shortly thereafter he invited her to his family’s Connecticut home under cover to watch a movie, but instead of watching the alleged movie, he ushered her into his bedroom and offered her a massage on. She “panked a little” and quickly offered to give him one instead. The actress went on to claim that Weinstein wanted to take off his pants, but she refused his advances and left the room in horror.
At the second meeting in New York, where she met Weinstein for dinner after a film screening, Lupita said the producer made it clear to her that he had a private room upstairs where they could have the rest of their meal. However, she rejected him again and left the restaurant.
Because of that experience, the actress said she made the decision never to work with Weinstein and, in accordance with her determination, turned down a role in the 2015 film. southpaw. However, she said that when they met in 2013, Weinstein admitted he treated her badly.
With over 10 years of experience in the film industry, Lupita is the Kenyan superstar who has made us really proud. Here are 10 of her pics that might make you want to play Loco.