Lupita Nyong’o

Lupita Amondi Nyong’o is a Kenyan-Mexican actress who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress with her very first feature film role, a feat that announced one of the most talented performers of her generation. Born in Mexico City to Kenyan parents (her father, Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o, is a Kenyan politician and senator), she was raised primarily in Kenya. She studied film and theater at Hampshire College in Massachusetts and later earned a Master’s degree in acting from the Yale School of Drama.

Nyong’o’s breakthrough came with her stunning debut in Steve McQueen’s “12 Years a Slave” (2013), in which she played Patsey, an enslaved woman on a Louisiana plantation. Her raw, heartbreaking performance earned her the Academy Award, SAG Award, and numerous critics’ prizes for Best Supporting Actress. She became only the sixth African-born person to win an acting Oscar, and the first Kenyan and first Mexican-born person to win an Academy Award.

Following her Oscar win, Nyong’o built an impressive career spanning blockbusters and prestige films. She voiced Maz Kanata in the “Star Wars” sequel trilogy, played Nakia in Marvel’s “Black Panther” (2018) and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (2022), and delivered a tour-de-force dual performance in Jordan Peele’s horror hit “Us” (2019). She also starred in “A Quiet Place: Day One” (2024) and has been involved in several producing projects. On stage, she won a Tony Award nomination for her Broadway debut in “Eclipsed” (2016).

With an estimated net worth of $10 million, Nyong’o’s income comes from her film career, lucrative brand partnerships with Lancome (as their first Black brand ambassador) and other luxury brands, and her work as an author. She wrote the children’s book “Sulwe” (2019), which became a number one New York Times bestseller. She is widely regarded as a fashion icon and has been named one of the most beautiful and influential people in the world by multiple publications.