“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.”

Kenyan actress

Lupita Nyong’o is a Kenyan actress, known for work in film, television, and theatre. Born Lupita Amondi Nyong’o, she has received an Academy Award, an Actor Award, and a Daytime Emmy Award. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for 12 Years a Slave (2013). Her credits also include the play Eclipsed (2015), which brought her a Tony Award nomination, along with Black Panther (2018) and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), the horror films Us (2019) and A Quiet Place: Day One (2024), the animated film The Wild Robot (2024), and Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey (2026).