Lupita Nyong'o : Biography

Lupita Nyong'o was born in Mexico, to Kenyan parents. She was raised in Kenya and educated in
the USA. She is a graduate of the Yale University School of Drama's Acting program.

Lupita's film debut was playing "Patsey" in acclaimed director, Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave (2013). She was also the lead in MTV's award-winning drama series, Shuga (2009).

Lupita's stage credits include playing "Perdita" in "The Winter's Tale", (Yale Repertory Theater), "Sonya" in "Uncle Vanya", "Katherine" in "The Taming of the Shrew", as well as being in the original production of Michael Mitnick's "Elijah".

Lupita was born in March 1983. Her father, a Kenyan senator was in Mexico, where she was born, as a visiting lecturer in political science but her upbringing was in Kenya. At age 16, her parents sent her back to Mexico for 7 months to learn Spanish. She read film studies at Hampshire College, Massachusetts and, after working as a production assistant on several films, graduated from Yale School of Drama. In 2013 she impressed cinema audiences in her American film debut, as brutalized slave Patsey in the acclaimed '12 Years a Slave.'