Lupita Nyong’o: voted one of the top 10 actresses for 2021

Lupita Nyong'o makes history

Lupita Nyong’o was named one of the top ten actresses in 2021 in October by Hollywood Insider. The 38 year old has an impressive career that began when she was a teen. Nyong'o was born to Peter Nyong'o and Dorothy Buyu on March 1, 1983, in Mexico City. Her father was a college professor in Mexico but when she was one year old her family moved to Kenya where her dad Peter Nyongo became a politician.

This is why she is referred to as a Mexican/Kenyan actress. She made her Broadway debut in 2015 as a teenage orphan in the play Eclipsed and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. Lupita began her Hollywood career as a production assistant and earned a bachelor's degree from Hampshire College in film and theatre studies. During an interview with The Guardian when asked what made hr happy Lupita said:

I thoroughly enjoyed high school in Nairobi: it was before everybody had a camera on their phone. I experimented with fashion and hairstyles that I am glad I don’t have any record of.

When asked to name her greatest fear she replied

"Having no impact on anybody".

Lupita made her acting debut in 2008 in the short film East River then returned to Kenya to star in the television series Shuga from 2009–2012. She pursued a master's degree in acting from the Yale School of Drama and upon graduation, she starred as Patsy in the biographical period drama, ‘12 Years a Slave,’ receiving the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Lupita is the first Mexican actress to win an Oscar.

Lupita Nyong'o's other roles

Nyong'o has worked steadily and ti seems the roles just keep on coming. She performed a motion capture role as Maz Kanata in the Star Wars sequel trilogy (2015–2019) and was a lead voice role as Raksha in The Jungle Book (2016). Her next role was in 2018 as Nakia in the Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster film Black Panther.

The following year (2019) she had a starring role in the critically acclaimed horror film Us where she had a dual role as a doppelganger. Nyong'o earned a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role and won an NAACP Image Award for Best Actress for Us.

Lupita said that while filming the movie she was in full makeup and using the restroom when someone walked in on her. She said this experience was her most embarrassing and took all the menace from her character out of her. Also in 2019 she portrayed a kindergarten teacher dealing with a zombie apocalypse in the comedy-horror flick Little Monsters.

Lupita Nyong'o a woman of passion

In addition to acting, Nyong'o is passionate about women's and animal rights, historical preservation, and sexual harassment. She was named the most beautiful woman by People in 2014 and her children's book titled Sulwe, released in 2019 became a number-one New York Times Best-Seller. Also in 2019, Lupita earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Narrator for narrating the Discovery Channel docu-series Serengeti, In 2020 Nyong'o was named by Forbes as one of Africa's "50 Most Powerful Women."

Nyong'o's next starring role will be in 2022 in Simon Kinberg's ensemble spy-thriller The 355. She is also developing a television series she will produce and star in based on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel Americanah. Lupita will produce and star in Born a Crime, a film adaptation of Trevor Noah's memoir of the same name. The actress will portray Noah's mother, Patricia. in the movie.