Lupita Nyong’o | Biography, Movies, & Facts | Britannica (2024)

Lupita Nyong’o (born March 1, 1983, Mexico City, Mexico) is a Kenyan actress known for her ability to inhabit a diverse range of characters. She won an Academy Award for her film debut in 12 Years a Slave (2013), and her later credits include the blockbuster movie franchise Black Panther.

Early life and education

Nyong’o, who was born in Mexico, grew up in Kenya, where her father served as a government minister and a senator. She attended Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts, and, while still a student, she served as a production assistant and an intern on several movies. In 2007 she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in film and African studies. Her senior thesis, the film In My Genes (2009), was featured at the 2010 New York African Film Festival. Nyong’o later assumed a role in the television miniseries Shuga (2009; 2012), about youth culture in multiple countries across Africa. She then enrolled at the Yale School of Drama, where she earned a master’s degree in acting (2012).

Films: 12 Years a Slave, Black Panther, and Us

In 2013 Nyong’o appeared in her first feature film, 12 Years a Slave. Her subtly anguished portrayal of Patsey, a young enslaved woman who is repeatedly raped by her enslaver (played by Michael Fassbender) and denigrated by his wife (Sarah Paulson), earned critical acclaim. Nyong’o won an Oscar for best supporting actress, and the film, which was directed by Steve McQueen, was named best picture. She next was cast in Non-Stop (2014), an action thriller about an air marshal trying to protect passengers amid threats from blackmailers. In 2015 Nyong’o appeared as Maz Kanata, a thousand-year-old pirate, in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. She later voiced a computer-animated version of the wolf Raksha in the 2016 live-action adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book.

In Queen of Katwe (2016), a biopic directed by Mira Nair, Nyong’o was cast as an impoverished Ugandan mother who encourages her daughter, a chess prodigy. She then appeared as the bodyguard and former lover of the title character in the acclaimed superhero movie Black Panther (2018); she reprised the role in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022). Nyong’o’s movies from 2019 include Jordan Peele’s horror film Us, in which she starred as the mother of a family whose home is invaded by violent doppelgängers, and the zombie comedy Little Monsters. Also that year she reprised her role as Maz Kanata in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

In the espionage thriller The 355 (2022), Nyong’o was part of an all-star cast that included Jessica Chastain and Penélope Cruz. She next starred in A Quiet Place: Day One (2024), a prequel to A Quiet Place, a horror film about the invasion of alien creatures that kill at any sound.

Theater work

Nyong’o continued to act on the stage, and in 2015 she appeared in an Off-Broadway production of Eclipsed, a drama centering on the captive wives of a rebel leader during the Liberian civil war. In 2016 Nyong’o made her Broadway debut as the play moved to the John Golden Theatre, and she later earned a Tony Award nomination for her performance.