“No matter where you come from your dreams are valid”. These are the words of the Oscar award winner, Lupita AmondiNyong’o whose success came at a young age leading to a great popularity and inspiration across the globe, especially Kenya. The prominent actor is a Kenyan who was born on March 1st 1983in Mexico while her family lived there due to some political unrests that were in Kenya. Her father, Professor Anyang Nyong’o has remained to be a prominent politician in Kenya. She grew up in Kenya but would later go back to Mexico to study Spanish in her teenage. She attended HamphshireCollege in USA where she also acquired a film and theatre studies degree. She is also a product of Yala School of Drama where she still pursued her master’s degree.
Lupita associates her involvement and success in acting to her parents and her aunt. She claims that her parents always encouraged each member of the family to pursue her dreams and her aunt always involved her in short skits whenever there were family gatherings. She would later prosper in acting at a young age of fourteen and even work with Phoenix Players in Nairobi. She also borrowed a lot of advice from a British actor, Ralph Fiennes who generally told about perseverance required in acting.
Her career and popularity mainly started in his home country, Kenya, where she was recommended by Lenny Juma to play the main character role in Shuga, a 2009 TV series. Lenny saw her as a talented young lady and she was given a role to play as Ayira, a college student. The play seemed successful to her because it was positively accepted over Africa. She had previously been involved in production of several films including; The Constant Gardener which was released in 2005, The Namesake which was released in 2006 and Where God Left His Shoes which was released in 2007
In 2008, Lupita started her career in Hollywood as aproduction assistant. Before returning to her home country Kenya for Shuga, a TV series, she got involved in a short called East river. She is the writer, producer and director of a documentary called In My Genes which majorly expressed and demonstrated the treatment of albinos from Kenya. The film had great positive results for because it was played in a number of festivals and was able to win an award. While still within her home country Kenya, she directed a music video involving Wahu and the Ugandan artist Bobi Wine that was later nominated for MTV Africa awards.
In 2013, Lupita plaid the role of a slave woman in the American-British film that displayed much of the ancient slavery features. The play would see her gain popularity in the film industry and to the audience. She was seen by many as a person who played the role in the best way. This is the play that led her to win an award from Oscar for being the Best Supporting Actress. She was also nominated in other awards including; Golden Global Award for the Best Supporting Actress, Screen Guild Actors award for best supporting actress which she ended up as a winner and Academy Award of the year for best supporting actress of the year.
Lupita again engaged in an action-thriller film., which general is about a marshal trying to impose security to his passengers against threat, called Non-Stop that was released in 2014. Lupita went on to co-star in the film ‘Star Wars: the Force Awakens’ as Maz Kanata the pirate. In 2015, she acted as the main character and starring in the play ‘Eclipsed’. She acted as a nameless character at times of civil war in Libya. The film became the fastest selling in Public Theatre’s history and so her win awards and get nominated for different awards. For instance, she was awarded a Theatre World Award for Outstanding Broadway and also nominated for Tony Award-Best Actress In a Play. Lupita voiced the mother wolf in an animated action film, ‘The Jungle Book’ that was released in 2016 and also starred Queen of Katwe that was based on a true story that involved a Ugandan chess player.
2019 saw Lupita play a role in two horror films, Little Monsters in which she acted as a kindergarten teacher and US which brought to her several awards and made New York Film Critics Circle name her as the best actress of the year.
Lupita describes herself as a citizen of both Kenya and Mexico and is well fluent in Luo, English, Swahili and Spanish. He continuous success in the film industry her led many people especially from Kenya to see her their role model. She remains to be the first Kenyan actress to win an Award from Oscar and an Academy Award. The people’s magazine crowned her as the most beautiful woman of 2014 and has also been ranked to be one of the most beautiful faces by TC Candler for four consecutive years.
Apart from his acting activities, Lupita also involves herself in other duties that she finds interesting and valuable to her. For example, she has worked with Mother Health International which is a charity that provides birth centers for women in Uganda and Kenya Wildlife to try and stop poaching.
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