Biografia

When she won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her role in 12 anni schiavo (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.

Is fluent in Luo, English, Swahili and Spanish.

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.

Attributes her career choice to British actor Ralph Fiennes. While she was a production assistant on The Constant Gardener - La cospirazione (2005) during the Nairobi/Kenya leg of the shoot, she asked Ralph for advice on becoming an actress and he told her that it was tough, but that if acting was what she really wanted to pursue, she simply had to persevere. Eight years later, after attending a screening of 12 anni schiavo (2013) at the Telluride Film Festival in August 2013, Lupita approached Ralph afterwards wondering if he'd remember her. He did, instantly, but he had no idea that she was the character Patsey whose performance had blown him away minutes earlier.

[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 anni schiavo (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.