Lupita Nyong'o

Early life and education

Lupita Amondi Nyong'o was born on 1 March 1983 in Mexico City, Mexico. She is the second of six children. Both her mother, Dorothy Ogada Buyu, and her father, Anyang' Nyong'o, are Kenyan and are of Luo descent. It is a Luo tradition to name a child after the events of the day, so Nyong'o's parents gave her the Spanish name Lupita, a diminutive of Guadalupe. At the time of her birth, her father was a visiting lecturer in political science at El Colegio de México in Mexico City. The family had left Kenya in 1980 for a period because of political repression and unrest; Lupita's uncle, Charles Nyong'o, disappeared after he was thrown off a ferry in 1980.

Nyong'o's family returned to Kenya when she was under a year old, after her father was appointed as a professor at the University of Nairobi. She grew up primarily in Nairobi, and has described her upbringing as middle class and suburban. Her family was artistic, and family get-togethers often included performances by the children and trips to see plays. Nyong'o was raised as a Christian and attended an all-girls Catholic school for the first six years of her life. She later attended Rusinga International School, where she performed in school plays.

At the age of 14, Nyong'o made her professional acting debut as Juliet in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, in a production by the Nairobi-based repertory company Phoenix Players. While a member of the Phoenix Players, she also performed in the plays On The Razzle and There Goes The Bride. She credits the performances of Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey in The Color Purple with inspiring her to pursue an acting career.

When Nyong'o was 16, her parents sent her to Mexico for seven months to learn Spanish. She lived in Taxco, Guerrero, and took classes at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México's Learning Centre for Foreigners. She later attended St. Mary's School in Nairobi, where she received an IB Diploma in 2001, finishing second in her class. She then attended Hampshire College in the United States, graduating with a bachelor's degree in film and theatre studies. Nyong'o holds Mexican, Kenyan, and U.S. citizenship and identifies as "Kenyan-Mexican".

Nyong'o's father is a former member of the Kenyan Parliament and the Kenyan Senate, and is a former Minister for Medical Services. He is currently the governor of Kisumu County.

Career

2000s: Early work

Nyong'o began her career working as part of the production crew for several films, including Fernando Meirelles's The Constant Gardener (2005), Mira Nair's The Namesake (2006), and Salvatore Stabile's Where God Left His Shoes (2007). She cites Ralph Fiennes, the British star of The Constant Gardener, as someone who inspired her to pursue a professional acting career. In 2008, Nyong'o starred in the short film East River, directed by Marc Grey and shot in Brooklyn. She returned to Kenya that same year and appeared in the Kenyan television series Shuga, an MTV Base Africa/UNICEF drama about HIV/AIDS prevention.

In 2009, she wrote, directed, and produced the documentary In My Genes, about the discriminatory treatment of Kenya's albino population. It played at several film festivals and won first prize at the 2008 Five College Film Festival. Nyong'o also directed the music video "The Little Things You Do" by Wahu, featuring Bobi Wine, which was nominated for the Best Video Award at the MTV Africa Music Awards 2009.

2010s: Breakthrough and rise to prominence

Nyong'o enrolled in a master's degree program in acting at the Yale School of Drama. At Yale, she appeared in many stage productions, including Gertrude Stein's Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights, Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, and William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and The Winter's Tale. While at Yale, she won the Herschel Williams Prize in the 2011–12 academic year for "acting students with outstanding ability".

Immediately after graduating from Yale, Nyong'o landed her breakthrough role when she was cast in Steve McQueen's historical drama 12 Years a Slave (2013). The film, which met with widespread critical acclaim, is based on the life of Solomon Northup (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free-born African-American man of upstate New York who is kidnapped and sold into slavery in Washington, DC, in 1841. Nyong'o portrays Patsey, a slave who works alongside Northup at a Louisiana cotton plantation. Ian Freer of Empire felt Nyong'o gave "one of the most committed big-screen debuts imaginable", while Peter Travers of Rolling Stone said she "imbues Patsey with grit and radiant grace".

She was nominated for several awards for 12 Years a Slave, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress, a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, including Best Supporting Actress, which she won. She also won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the sixth black actress to win the award.

The blue Prada dress she wore to the awards garnered substantial media attention and acclaim and was regarded as one of the most iconic outfits to be worn on the red carpet in Hollywood history. She is the second African actress to win the award, the first Kenyan actress to win an Oscar, and the first Mexican to win the award. She is also the fifteenth actress to win an Oscar in her debut film.

In 2025, Nyongo said of the effect the film had on her career: "It really did set the paces for everything I've done since. But, you know, what's interesting is that after I won that Academy Award you’d think, 'Oh, I’m gonna get lead roles here and there.' [Instead, it was], 'Oh, Lupita, we'd like you to play another movie where you're a slave, but this time you're on a slave ship.' Those are the kind of offers I was getting in the months after winning my Academy Award ... I like to be a joyful warrior for changing the paradigms of what it means to be African and if that means that I work one job less a year to ensure that I'm not perpetuating the stereotypes that are expected of people from my continent, then let me do that."

2020s: Present work

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Nyong'o appeared on the Global Citizen organised television event, Together at Home, in April 2020, and joined the radio play presentation of Richard II from The Public Theater and WNYC as The Narrator. Nyong'o was featured in Beyoncé's musical film Black Is King, which premiered on Disney+ in July 2020.

Nyong'o partnered with Nairobi-based media and tech startup Kukua in support of YouTube Originals' STEM-themed, Super Sema (2021), which became Africa's first kid superhero animated series. Super Sema follows the adventures of an extraordinary young African girl, Sema, who lives in the neo-African-futuristic community of Dunia. Nyong'o serves as an executive producer and voice actress in the series. Afterwards, she starred alongside Juan Castano in Saheem Ali's bilingual radio play adaptation of Romeo & Juliet, titled Romeo y Julieta (2021).

She provided narration for Apple TV+'s documentary, Who Are You, Charlie Brown? (2021), based on the origins of Peanuts and its creator Charles M. Schulz. Nyong'o won the Outstanding Limited Performance in a Children's Program category at the 48th Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards for her involvement in Netflix's television series, Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices (2020). In 2021, Nyong'o reprised her narration role in Serengeti (2019), where she earned her second Primetime Emmy Award nomination.

The following year, Nyong'o starred in Simon Kinberg's ensemble spy-thriller The 355 (2022) alongside Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Fan Bingbing, and Diane Kruger. She also guest-starred in Netflix's adult animated sitcom Human Resources (2022) as Asha, a Shame Wizard who became Lionel's interest. Later, Nyong'o reprised the role of Nakia in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the sequel to the original Black Panther film, released in November 2022.

In 2024, Nyong'o played the lead role in the horror prequel film A Quiet Place: Day One. She also took on a voice role in the animated film The Wild Robot, in which she voiced the lead role of an abandoned robot named Roz. Also in 2024, Nyong'o began hosting the podcast Mind Your Own, in which she tells stories from the African diaspora and talks about experiences relating to her own life and Kenyan heritage. That same year, she became the first black and first African jury president of the Berlinale.

Other activities

Activism

In February 2014, at the Essence Black Women in Hollywood luncheon in Beverly Hills, she delivered a speech on the beauty of Black women, and told the audience about the insecurities she had as a teenager. She said her views changed when she saw South Sudanese model Alek Wek become successful.

In October 2014, the National Trust for Historic Preservation recruited Nyong'o in an effort to oppose development, including a new minor league baseball stadium, in the Shockoe Bottom area of Richmond, Virginia. The historic neighbourhood, one of Richmond's oldest, was the site of major slave-trading before the American Civil War. On 19 October 2014, Nyong'o sent a letter to Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones, which she posted on social media, asking him to withdraw support for the development proposal. She later lent her voice in Conservation International's Nature Is Speaking campaign as the flower.

In June 2015, Nyong'o returned to Kenya and announced that she would advocate globally for elephants with the international conservation organisation WildAid, as well as promote women's issues, acting and the arts in Kenya. WildAid announced Nyong'o as their Global Elephant Ambassador.

As of 2016, Nyong'o was involved with the organisation Mother Health International, which aims to provide relief to women and children in Uganda by creating locally engaged birthing centres. She said she had never thought much about birthing practices until her sister introduced her to MHI executive director Rachel Zaslow. Nyong'o felt that bringing attention to such issues is a mandate for her as an artist. Variety honoured her for her work in April 2016.

In April 2016, Nyong'o launched an anti-poaching "hearts-and-minds" campaign with her organisation Wildaid in advance of the Kenya Wildlife Service ivory burn that occurred on 30 April, during which the Kenyan government burned one hundred five tonnes of ivory and 1.35 tonnes of rhino horn in a demonstration of their zero-tolerance approach to poachers and smugglers who were threatening the survival of elephants and rhinoceros in the wild.

In September 2019, Nyong'o became an ambassador for Michael Kors' "Watch Hunger Stop" campaign. In October, Nyong'o and her mother were honoured at The Harlem School of the Arts' Mask Ball with a "Visionary Lineage Award". Then, she was honoured at WildAid to receive the "Champion of the Year" award in November.

Writing

Nyong'o made her writing debut with a book titled Sulwe (2019), published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. Sulwe (Luo for "star") is the story of a five-year-old Kenyan girl who has the darkest complexion in her family, for which Nyong'o drew on her own childhood experiences. The book became a number-one New York Times Best-Seller. Sulwe was selected for the 2020 Illustrator Honor at the Coretta Scott King Awards and won for Outstanding Literary Work – Children at the 2020 NAACP Image Awards.

Media image

Nyong'o was mentioned in Christian rapper Lecrae's song "Nuthin'" from his 2014 album Anomaly and was referenced by Jay-Z in his verse from Jay Electronica's song "We Made It". She was also mentioned in the parody song "American Apparel Ad Girls" by the drag queens Willam Belli, Courtney Act and Alaska Thunderfuck. Nyong'o was mentioned in the 2015 song "Nerea" by Kenyan afro-pop band Sauti Sol. Rapper Nicki Minaj mentioned Lupita in her verse on A$AP Ferg's remix of "Plain Jane" and was referenced by rapper Wale in his song "Black Is Gold". Singer Beyoncé mentioned Nyong'o in the single "Brown Skin Girl" from The Lion King: The Gift (2019).

Nyong'o was included in Derek Blasberg's 2013 best-dressed list in Harper's Bazaar. In 2014, she was chosen as one of the faces for Miu Miu's spring campaign, with Elizabeth Olsen, Elle Fanning and Bella Heathcote. She has also appeared on the covers of several magazines, including New York's spring fashion issue and the UK magazine Dazed & Confused. In April of that year, she was named "The Most Beautiful Woman" by People. and was named the new face of Lancôme, making her the first black woman to appear on the brand. Later that November, she was named "Woman of the Year" by Glamour.

Nyong'o was on the July 2014 cover of Vogue, making her the second African woman and ninth black woman to cover the magazine. That same month she also appeared on the cover of July's issue of Elle (France). She appeared on the October 2015 issue of Vogue, making it her second cover in a row. That month, Congressman Charles Rangel and Voza Rivers, the head of the New Heritage Theatre Group, announced the day is officially "Lupita Nyong'o Day" in Harlem, New York. The honour was announced as a surprise during an open discussion between Nyong'o and image activist Michaela Angela Davis at Mist Harlem.

Nyong'o was included in Annie Leibovitz's 2016 Vanity Fair's Hollywood Issue. Nyong'o was honoured with a caricature portrait in May 2016 at Sardi's restaurant in New York City for her debut on Broadway. That July, she was chosen as one of the first celebrities, along with Elle Fanning, Christy Turlington Burns, and Natalie Westling, to star in Tiffany & Co.'s Fall 2016 campaign styled by Grace Coddington. Nyong'o appeared on Vogue's October 2016 cover, making it her third issue. That month, she was an honouree at the 2016 Elle Women in Hollywood Awards.

Personal life

Nyong'o is a Christian and is fluent in English, Spanish, Luo, and Swahili. She said her mother taught her to live "a life of gratitude and bounty", referencing the Prayer of Jabez in 1 Chronicles 4:9–10. Nyong'o lives in Los Angeles as of 2024. Nyong'o suffers from uterine fibroids.

In October 2017—in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse scandal and the MeToo movement—Nyong'o wrote an op-ed for The New York Times divulging that Weinstein had sexually harassed her on two separate occasions in 2011, when she was a student at Yale. She had vowed never to work with him thereafter, hence turning down an offer to star in Southpaw (2015), a Weinstein-distributed film. She further wrote about her commitment to work with female directors, as well as male feminist directors who have not abused their power. Nyong'o's op-ed was part of a collection of stories by The New York Times and The New Yorker that won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. At the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City in April 2018, she joined Julianne Moore and other actress in participating in a Time's Up event.

Nyong'o had a lifelong fear of cats, but underwent exposure therapy for the 2024 film A Quiet Place: Day One in order to work with her cat co-stars. By the end of the film's development she had come to enjoy cats so much that she adopted her own pet cat, named Yoyo.

Filmography

Accolades

Nyong'o has received an Actor Award, an Academy Award and a Daytime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two British Academy Film Awards, a Golden Globe Award and a Tony Award.