Lupita Amondi Nyong’o is a Kenyan-Mexican actress born in Mexico City, Mexico. Myong’o developed an interest in entertainment through theater, performing in school plays as a child. Her first major acting role came at 14, when she played Juliet in a Nairobi-based repertory company, Phoenix Players’ production of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. She also performed in productions of On The Razzle and There Goes The Bride.

Nyong’o’s film career began after initially working on production crews for films including Fernando Meirelles’s The Constant Gardener, Mira Nair’s The Namesake, and Salvatore Stabile’s Where God Left His Shoes, starring in the 2008 short film East River. After that, she appeared on the Kenyan television series Shuga and then, after graduating with a masters degre from Yale, Nyong’o became a breakthrough hit in the 2013 film 12 Years a Slave.

Since then, Nyong’o has appeared in multiple globally acclaimed films including Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Black Panther, Little Monsters, Us, A Quiet Place: Day One, The Odyssey, and more.

She has won a number of awards, including an Academy Award, an Actor Award, and a Daytime Emmy Award, and nominations for as well as nominations for two British Academy Film Awards, a Tony Award and a Golden Globe Award.