Lupita Nyong’o is a Kenyan actress and music video director who has a net worth of $10 million dollars. She is best known for her starring roles in films like “12 Years a Slave” (2013), “Black Panther” (2018) and “Us” (2019).
Lupita Amondi Nyong’o was born in on March 1, 1983, in Mexico City, Mexico, to Kenyan parents-her father, Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o, was working as a guest professor at the El Colegio de Mexico. Nyong’o is the second of six children, and identifies as Kenyan-Mexican; she has dual Kenyan and Mexican citizenship. When she was less than a year old, her father was appointed as a professor at the University of Nairobi, and the family returned to Kenya.
As a teenager, Nyong’o local productions in Nairobi; she made her professional acting debut when she was fourteen years old in a production of “Romeo and Juliet” by the Nairobi-based company the Phoenix Players. Nyong’o graduated from St. Mary’s School in Nairobi with an IB Diploma in 2001. She continued her education at Hampshire College in the United States, where she pursued a degree in film and theatre studies.
Nyong’o started her career in the entertainment and film industry as a member of the production crew for various films, such as “The Constant Gardener” (2005), directed by Fernando Meirelles; “The Namesake” (2006), directed by Mira Nair; and “Where God Left His Shoes” (2007), directed by Salvatore Stabile. Inspired by working on these films, Nyong’o began working on her own projects. In 2008, she starred in a short film called “East River”. That same year she returned to Kenya, where she appeared in the television series “Shuga”. Then, in 2009, she wrote, directed, and produced her own documentary about the albino population in Kenya, “In My Genes”. It actually won first prize at the Five College Film Festival. Also in 2009, she directed the music video for the song “The Little Things You Do” by Wahu, and the video was nominated at the 2009 MTV Africa Music Awards for the Best Video Award. Then, Nyong’o enrolled at the Yale School of Drama to pursue a master’s degree in acting.
Nyong’o began her career in Hollywood as a production assistant. In 2008, she made her acting debut with the short film East River and subsequently returned to Kenya to star in the television series Shuga (2009–2012). Also in 2009, she wrote, produced and directed the documentary In My Genes. She then pursued a master’s degree in acting from the Yale School of Drama. Soon after her graduation, she had her first feature film role as Patsey in Steve McQueen’s biographical period drama 12 Years a Slave (2013), for which she received critical acclaim and won several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She became the first Kenyan and Mexican actress to win an Academy Award.
Nyong’o made her Broadway debut as a teenage orphan in the play Eclipsed (2015), for which she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. She went on to perform a motion capture role as Maz Kanata in the Star Wars sequel trilogy (2015–2019) and a lead voice role as Raksha in The Jungle Book (2016). Nyong’o’s career progressed with her role as Nakia in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film Black Panther (2018) and her starring role in Jordan Peele’s critically acclaimed horror film Us (2019).
In addition to acting, Nyong’o supports historic preservation. She is vocal about preventing sexual harassment, working for women’s and animal rights. In 2014, she was named the most beautiful woman by People. Nyong’o has also written a children’s book named Sulwe (2019), which became a number one New York Times Best-Seller. Also in 2019, Nyong’o narrated the Discovery Channel docu-series Serengeti, which earned her a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Narrator. Nyong’o was named among Africa’s “50 Most Powerful Women” by Forbes in 2020.
