“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.”

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).