Clik here to view.
Odds are the incredibly talented and Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o only recently made it to your radar. She may be the Hollywood It Girl right now, but we’ve got proof that she’s been doing amazing things since way back!
Lupita was born in Mexico but grew up in Kenya. Her dad was working as a professor at the University of Nairobi, the country’s largest college.
When she was a little girl she saw the movie “The Color Purple,” which is about the lives of African-American women. It made a strong impression on her. “It was first time I’d seen someone like me on screen,” she said. “Whoopi Goldberg [an actress in “The Color Purple”] had my kind of hair and was dark like me. I thought, maybe I could do this for a living.”
Clik here to view.
Photo: Lupita At The Academy Awards (Getty)
+ Watch the trailer for “In My Genes.”
Lupita also has a history with MTV, as she starred in MTV Kenya’s “Shuga,” a series about young Kenyans exploring adulthood. The series was in partnership with MTV’s Staying Alive campaign, which is committed the HIV prevention and education.
Clik here to view.
Photo: Lupita Nyong’o in ‘Shuga’ (MTV Staying Alive)
When Lupita was about to graduate from Yale University’s drama school, she was offered a role in “12 Years a Slave.” She threw herself into research and learned details on the horrors of slavery. This increased her knowledge and passion for the project, and she gave it her all. And now the actress, documentarian and self-acceptance speaker is an Academy Award-winner and a household name.
