Lupita Nyong’o Biography: Early Life, Family, Career, Movies, Awards & Net Worth

Lupita Nyong’O (born March 1, 1983) is a talented Kenyan-Mexican actress and TV personality. She radiates with brilliant brilliance in the artistic realm. Her exploits have resulted in a noteworthy Oscar award, a crowning achievement that demonstrates her exceptional talents.

Her filmography is filled with wonderful parts that have made an indelible impression on cinema. Lupita Nyong’o’s passion to her profession is seen in her work on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), Us (2019), and Black Panther (2018). Her performances in 12 Years a Slave (2013) and The 355 (2022) offer depth to her film experience.

Lupita Nyong’O Biography

Lupita Amondi Nyong’o was born on March 1, 1983, in Mexico City, to Kenyan parents Dorothy Ogada Buyu and Anyang’ Nyong’o, a college lecturer. The family had fled Kenya in 1980 due to political repression and violence; Lupita’s uncle, Charles Nyong’o, went missing after being tossed off a ship.

Nyong’o is a “Kenyan-Mexican” with citizenship in Kenya, Mexico, and the United States. She is the second of six children and descends from Luo on both sides of her family. The Luo people have a tradition of naming children after events of the day, therefore her parents gave her the Spanish name Lupita (a diminutive of Guadalupe).

Her father, a former Member of Kenyan Parliament and Minister for Medical Services, is the Governor of Kisumu County, Kenya, as of November 2025. When Nyong’o was born, he was a visiting lecturer in political science at El Colegio de México in Mexico City.

Nyong’o’s family returned to Kenya when she was less than a year old, after her father was hired a professor at the University of Nairobi. She was raised mostly in Nairobi, in an artistic family, and defines her childhood as “middle class, suburban.”

When Nyong’o was 16, her parents sent her to Mexico for seven months to study Spanish. She spent seven months living in Taxco, Guerrero, and attending classes at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México’s Learning Centre for Foreigners.

Nyong’o later attended St. Mary’s School in Nairobi, where she earned an IB Diploma in 2001 with an average score of 6 out of 7, ranking second in her class. She attended Hampshire College in the United States and graduated with a degree in cinema and theatrical studies.

Career

Nyong’o began her career as a member of the production crew for many films, including Fernando Meirelles’ The Constant Gardener (2005), Mira Nair’s The Namesake (2006), and Salvatore Stabile’s Where God Left His Shoes (2007). She credits Ralph Fiennes, the British star of The Constant Gardener, for inspiring her to pursue a professional acting career.

Nyong’o appeared in the 2008 short film East River, directed by Marc Grey and shot in Brooklyn. That same year, she returned to Kenya to act in the Kenyan television series Shuga, an MTV Base Africa/UNICEF drama about HIV/AIDS prevention. She created, directed, and produced the documentary In My Genes, which explores the discrimination against Kenya’s albino people.

It shown at various film festivals and earned first place at the 2008 Five College Film Festival. Nyong’o also directed the music video “The Little Things You Do” by Wahu, which featured Bobi Wine and was nominated for Best Video at the MTV Africa Music Awards 2009.

Nyong’o enrolled in a master’s program in acting at Yale School of Drama. She performed in numerous theatre performances while at Yale, including Gertrude Stein’s Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights, Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, and William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and The Winter’s Tale.

She received the Herschel Williams Prize for “acting students with outstanding ability” during her time at Yale in the 2011-12 academic year. Nyong’o’s breakout role came right after she graduated from Yale, in Steve McQueen’s historical film 12 Years a Slave (2013).

The film, which received significant critical praise, is based on the life of Solomon Northup (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free-born African-American man from upstate New York who is kidnapped and sold into slavery in Washington, DC, in 1841. Nyong’o played Patsey, a slave who works alongside Northup on a Louisiana cotton plantation; her performance drew excellent reviews.

Ian Freer of Empire stated that she “gives one of the most committed big-screen debuts imaginable,” and Peter Travers of Rolling Stone named her “a spectacular young actress who imbues Patsey with grit and radiant grace”.

She received multiple nominations for 12 Years a Slave, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress, a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, including Best Supporting Actress, which she won. She also won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming only the sixth black actress to do so.

The blue Prada gown she wore to the awards received a lot of media attention and accolades, and it’s now regarded one of the most iconic red carpet gowns in Hollywood history. She is the second African actress to win the Oscar, the first Kenyan, and the first Mexican to do it. She is also the fifteenth actress to receive an Oscar for her film debut performance.

Nyong’o’s first post-Oscar role was in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) as Force-sensitive space pirate Maz Kanata, a CGI character developed with motion capture technology. She had wanted to portray a role where her beauty was irrelevant, and the acting was a different challenge than her role as Patsey. Forbes’ Scott Mendelson described Nyong’o’s performance as “the centre of the film’s best sequence,” and Time magazine’s Stephanie Zacharek dubbed her a “delightful minor character”.

She received nominations for Best Supporting Actress at the 42nd Saturn Awards and Best Virtual Performance at the 2016 MTV Movie Awards for her work. In 2015, Nyong’o returned to the stage, playing an anonymous girl in Danai Gurira’s drama Eclipsed.

The drama is set during the chaos of the Second Liberian Civil War, when the captured wives of a rebel officer join together to form a commune, only to have their lives upended by the arrival of a new girl (Nyong’o). Eclipsed became the Public Theater’s fastest-selling new production in recent years, earning Nyong’o an Obie Award for Outstanding Performance.

The drama debuted on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre the next year. It was the first Broadway production to feature a creative cast and crew entirely made up of black women. Nyong’o had studied the play at Yale in 2009 and was scared of playing the character onstage. She declined Hollywood roles in preference of the production.

Her performance received critical acclaim; The New York Times’ Charles Isherwood described Nyong’o as “one of the most radiant young actors to be seen on Broadway in recent seasons,” adding that she “shines with a compassion that makes us see beyond the suffering to the indomitable humanity of its characters.”

Her work in Eclipsed garnered her the Theatre World Award for Outstanding Broadway or Off-Broadway Debut work, as well as a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play. She was also nominated for Outstanding Actress in a Play at the Outer Critics Circle Awards and Distinguished Performance Award at the Drama League Awards.

In 2018, she played spy Nakia, a former member of Dora Milaje, a team of women who serve as Wakanda’s special forces and personal bodyguards to T’Challa / Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), in Ryan Coogler’s superhero film Black Panther (2018), which was the eighteenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Nyong’o learnt Xhosa and trained in judo, jujitsu, silat, and Filipino martial arts before taking on the role.

The Washington Post’s David Betancourt wrote that the film “takes superhero cinema where it’s never gone before by not being afraid to embrace its blackness” and praised Nyong’o for avoiding stereotypical depictions of a black leading lady, stating that she “throws punches, shoots guns, and steals hearts in a role she seems born for.”

Black Panther grossed more than $1.34 billion globally, ranking as the ninth highest-grossing picture of all time. Nyong’o received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Actress for her performance. Following the success of Black Panther, Nyong’o as a kindergarten teacher battling with a zombie apocalypse in the comedic horror thriller Little Monsters (2019).

Variety’s Amy Nicholson commented that Nyong’o’s “deadpan humour and grace ennoble the slapstick”. Her next release, Jordan Peele’s psychological horror film Us, premiered at South by Southwest in 2019. It relates the story of a family who are confronted by their doppelgangers.

]Nyong’o stars in the horror prequel thriller A Quiet Place: Day One, which will be released in 2024. She also appeared in the animated film The Wild Robot, where she voiced the principal character, an abandoned robot named Roz.

In 2024, Nyong’o also began hosting the podcast Mind Your Own, in which she shares stories from the African diaspora as well as personal experiences from her Kenyan origin. In 2024, she was cast in Christopher Nolan’s next epic picture The Odyssey, which will be released in 2026.

Lupita Nyong’O Movies

Is lupita Nyong’o Married?

Lupita Nyong’o has been romantically involved with K’Naan (2013–2014) and Janelle Monáe. She had rumoured relationships with Michael B. Jordan (2018), Jared Leto (2014), Michael Fassbender (2013), and Chiwetel Ejiofor (2012-2013).

Interestingly, Lupita Nyong’o’s personal journey took a public turn when she and Selema Masekela announced their romance on Instagram in December 2022.

The revelation was accompanied by a beautiful video demonstrating their synchronised red carpet transformations and the rhythmic snap of fingers set to Iniko and Reuel Williams’ enthralling song The King’s Affirmation. It’s important noting that Lupita Nyong’o currently has no children.

Lupita Nyong’O Net Worth

Lupita Nyong’o, a Kenyan actress and music video director, has a $10 million net worth.

Social Media

Instagram: @lupitanyongo