30 Interesting facts about Lupita Nyong’o! (List)

You can read them in the list below!

1. Lupita Nyong’o was born in Mexico, but was raised in Kenya.

2. Lupita Nyong’o later completed a master’s degree in acting in 2012, from the Yale School of Drama.

3. Lupita Nyong’o was born March 1, 1983. She is a Kenyan actress and film director.

4. She is of Luo descent on both sides of her family, and is the second of six children.

5. Lupita Nyong’o is the first Mexican and first Kenyan actress to win an Academy Award.

6. Nyong’o started in the film industry as a production assistant on several Hollywood films.

7. Lupita Nyong’o attended college in the United States, earning a Bachelor’s degree in film and theater studies from Hampshire College.

8. Her father is a college professor turned politician from Kenya.

9. Lupita Nyong’o identifies as Mexican-Kenyan.

10. In 2008, she made her acting debut with the short film East River and subsequently returned to Kenya to star in the television series Shuga (2009).

11. Her family was forced to leave Kenya because of political unrest.

12. In 2014, she was named “The Most Beautiful Woman” by People and “Woman of the Year” by Glamour.

13. Lupita Nyong’o grew up in an artistic family, where family get-togethers often included performances by the children in the family, and trips to see plays.

14. It is a Luo tradition to name a child after the events of the day, so her parents gave her a Spanish name, Lupita (a diminutive of Guadalupe).

15. While a member of the Phoenix Players, Nyong’o also performed in the plays “On The Razzle” and “There Goes The Bride”.

16. Lupita Nyong’o had her first feature film role as Patsey in Steve McQueen’s historical drama 12 Years a Slave (2013), winning an Oscar for it as Best Supporting Actress.

17. Her father is a former Minister for Medical Services in the Kenyan government.

18. Lupita Nyong’o dedicated her Critic’s Choice Award to the memory of her uncle, Aggrey Nyong’o, a noted pathologist who died in a car accident in 2002.

19. Lupita Nyong’o was born in Mexico City, Mexico, to Dorothy and Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o.

20. In 2009, she wrote, produced and directed the documentary In My Genes.

21. When she was sixteen, her parents sent her to Mexico for seven months to learn Spanish. During those seven months, Nyong’o lived in Taxco, Guerrero, and took classes at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México’s Learning Center for Foreigners.

22. She grew up primarily in Kenya, and describes her upbringing as “middle class, suburban”.

23. Lupita Nyong’o also became the fifteenth actress to win an Oscar for a debut performance in a feature film.

24. Lupita Nyong’o has also appeared on the covers of several magazines, including New York’s spring fashion issue and the UK magazine Dazed & Confused.

25. Lupita Nyong’o and her family moved back to their native Kenya when she was less than one year old, as her father was appointed a professor at the University of Nairobi.

26. She was also awarded the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the sixth black actress to win the award, the first African actress to win the award, the first Kenyan actress to win an Oscar, and the first Mexican to win the award.

27. At Yale she appeared in many stage productions, 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. While at Yale, she won the Herschel Williams Prize for “acting students with outstanding ability” during the 2011-12 academic year, and graduated.

28. At the time of her birth, he was a visiting lecturer in political science at El Colegio de México in Mexico City, and her family had been living in Mexico for three years. They returned to Kenya in 1983.

29. Nyong’o also directed the music video The Little Things You Do by Wahu, featuring Bobi Wine, which was nominated for the Best Video Award at the MTV Africa Music Awards 2009.

30. She starred in the short film East River (2008), directed by Marc Grey and shot in Brooklyn. She returned to Kenya that same year and appeared in the Kenyan television series Shuga, an MTV Base Africa/UNICEF drama about HIV/AIDS prevention.