A biography for Lupita Nyong'ohasn’t been written yet.
“I had moved back to Kenya after undergrad, and I went through this crisis of, 'What is my life going to be about?'”
“The beauty standards had nothing to do with me in Mexico. It was such a bizarre, dire time for my hair. I was living in a small town where there was not any semblance of an African community. I'd have to take the bus to Mexico City to find a woman who could braid my hair. That was two and a half hours away.”
“I never, in my wildest dreams, could I have thought that the first role I get out of school would lead to an Oscar nomination.”
“I always love to learn new things. That's the reason I like being an actor.”
“I definitely love fantasy and would want to be in a fantasy project.”
“When I was younger, I was almost too afraid to admit that I wanted to be an actor. I didn't know any successful actors in Kenya, so I felt like I could get away with going to college to study film more easily than I could with saying, 'I want to be an actor.' That's what I did.”
“I want to be uncomfortable - acting is uncomfortable.”
“I discovered that joy is not the negation of pain, but rather acknowledging the presence of pain and feeling happiness in spite of it.”
“I have dabbled in martial arts all my life, since I was 7, maybe - tae kwon do, capoeira, Muay Thai. It's always been an interest because in martial arts there is a mind/body relationship.”
“I come from a very close class. I lucked out because drama schools are often very competitive... I have fourteen classmates.”
“My parents gave me a Mexican name. In our culture, we are named after the events of the day.”
“Slavery is something that is all too often swept under the carpet.”
“I grew up in the limelight and being the child of someone famous. So my relationship with fame is not bedazzled.”
“Steve McQueen is a genius. And I think that word is overused, but I think with Steve it's rightly used. He's a genius.”
“Makeup isn't something I've worn a lot of in my life.”
“I didn't love my hair when I was a child. It was lighter than my skin, which made me not love it so much. I was really kind of envious of girls with thicker, longer, more lush hair.”
“I do my best work when I feel conviction to say something through the character I play. Always I want to have integrity and not compromise that.”
“Personally, I don't ever want to depend on makeup to feel beautiful.”
“I am thrilled beyond words that The Academy has recognized my performance in Steve McQueen's '12 Years a Slave,' and I am deeply proud to be in the company of my fellow nominees.”
“I was born in Mexico because my father was teaching at a school in Mexico City. I was born during the third year he was there. And when I was 16, I returned to Mexico to learn Spanish.”