Biografie

Is fluent in Luo, English, Swahili and Spanish.

When she won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her role in 12 Years a Slave (2013) in 2014, she became the first Kenyan to win an Oscar, the first African actress to win Best Actress in a Supporting Role and the first Mexican-born actress to win an Oscar.

Lupita is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.

Born in Mexico City, Mexico, to Kenyan parents. Her father, Professor Anyang' Nyong'o, is a senator in Kenya.

First Kenyan actress to be nominated for, and to win, an Academy Award.

[on retaining overnight the elaborate scarring makeup on her back, incurred in the brutal whipping scene with the sadistic plantation owner] They were haunting. I could only sleep on my belly. I was just so aware of them the whole night. I remember fretting and weeping, and then it occurred to me that my discomfort was temporary, and the woman who I was playing, her discomfort was permanent. It just really centered me, and really quieted my soul for the next day's work.

[on portraying Patsey in 12 Years a Slave (2013)] I was heartbroken by her story. I just felt so sorry for her. I recognized then that I had a lot of work to do to get to a point where I could play her, because feeling that kind of sympathy for someone is no way to actually inhabit them.. She was just simple and she was trying to get by on a daily basis. She's not sentimental about her pain. I had to have the same kind of attitude.

[2014: Academy Award acceptance speech, closing remarks] When I look down at this golden statue, may it remind every child that no matter where you are from, your dreams are valid.

I got teased and taunted about my skin. My one prayer to God was that I would wake up lighter skinned. The morning would come and I would be so excited about seeing my new skin that I would refuse to look down at myself until I was in front of the mirror because I wanted to see my face first. Every day I would feel the disappointment of being just as dark as the day before.

[on supermodel Alek Wek] She was dark as night and was in all the magazines and on runways. My complexion had always been an obstacle to overcome. I couldn't believe that people were embracing a woman who looked so much like me as beautiful. It was perplexing and I wanted to reject it because I had begun to enjoy the seduction of inadequacy. But a flower couldn't help but bloom inside of me.