Lupita Nyong’o (1983- ) is a Mexi-Kenyan actress, best known for playing Patsey in “12 Years a Slave” (2013). She has appeared on Kenyan television, in Hollywood films and, now in March 2016, on Broadway – in “Eclipsed”, the first Broadway play with an all-Black female cast.
She is so beautiful and talented that even White people can see it: she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2014 and has appeared on the cover of Vogue in both 2014 and 2015.
But even she did not always see her own beauty:
“I got teased and taunted about my skin. My one prayer to God was that I would wake up lighter-skinned. The morning would come and I would be so excited about seeing my new skin that I would refuse to look down at myself until I was in front of the mirror because I wanted to see my face first. Every day I would feel the disappointment of being just as dark as the day before.”
Her prayers were answered in the form of South Sudanese model Alek Wek:
“She was dark as night and was in all the magazines and on runways. My complexion had always been an obstacle to overcome. I couldn’t believe that people were embracing a woman who looked so much like me as beautiful. It was perplexing and I wanted to reject it because I had begun to enjoy the seduction of inadequacy. But a flower couldn’t help but bloom inside of me.”
and:
“Oprah telling her how beautiful she was. I was like, ‘what is going on here?’ It was very powerful. Something in my subconscious shifted.”
Her hair she used to wear long and straightened, but at 19 it got so chemically damaged that she shaved it off. She has kept her hair short ever since.
Her father was a Kenyan professor who taught in Nairobi and Addis Ababa, at Harvard and in Mexico City, where she was born. Lupita is a Mexican name. They moved back to Kenya when she was one. He has since become a senator and government minister in Kenya. She returned to Mexico at age 16 for seven months to study Spanish.
She speaks Spanish, English, Swahili and Luo.
After high school, she came to the US to study film and theatre at Hampshire College.
In 2009, back in Kenya, she wrote, produced and directed “In My Genes”, a film about albinos. Her early film credits are behind the scenes.
In 2009 and 2011 she appeared on Kenyan television as one of the main characters of “Shuga”, an MTV Base soap opera that pushed safe sex.
In 2012, like Angela Bassett, she got her master’s degree in acting from the Yale School of Drama. From there she went straight into “12 Years a Slave”, which made her name. She makes you feel what her character feels.
In 2015, she appeared in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”. Reportedly, some of her scenes were so bad they had to be cut or reworked. In her defence, she played an alien with a computer-generated face!
– Abagond, 2016.
See also:
- Welcome to Black Women’s History Month 2016!
- films
- Alek Wek
- Oprah
- Angela Bassett
- All-White Oscars
- All-Black Vogue
- Are white women beautiful or is it society that makes them seem so?
- skin lightening
- The most beautiful women according to Kenya
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I seriously am in LOVE with this sister. Nothing can compare with or beat a gorgeous chocolate-skinned woman!
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Lupita’s a beauty! I love her skin! It’s so luminous. She can wear vivid colours I can only dream of.
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She has gorgeous skin.
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She makes colors pop she’s very photogenic.
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Lupita is a stunning beauty! She looks like a black goddess. She’s easily one of the top five prettiest women in Hollywood. But she is really under used. Hollywood doesn’t know what to do with beautiful,intelligent and graceful back women like her. She was really wasted in that Star Wars film. A face that beautiful…..and they have her playing an alien??? What a waste! But I still think she will go far in the industry. I just hope she keeps it real and doesn’t sell out. Hopefully she remembers her African roots and isn’t corrupted by demonic Hollyweird.
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Stunning, and so poetic…she is amazing!
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Like Mrs. Obama, she has impeccable taste and she’s cute. The down side are her legs, not to my liking.
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Lupita’s skin is flawless… very pretty woman.
I hope she gets to continue to work in Hollywood but so far, it seems like she is making more headway in modelling.
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As a Kenyan, I feel like Lupita has already sold out. I wish she would come home and help develop our own entertainment industry instead of hanging around Hollywood waiting for the scraps they will give her.
Also,about her wishing she was white, she went to expensive private schools with white people and that must be why. Because the rest of us don’t sit around wishing we were white. That would be so weird.
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Reblogged this on The Militant Negro™.
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Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
What a beautiful story!! Thanks for sharing …..
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Not sure if that is written sarcastically or not, but we all know one can be beautiful without the white gaze. Who cares if white people see it or not.
Lupita is a Goddess! 😀
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@lifelearner: Hear! Hear! I wholeheartedly agree.
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She is heartbreakingly beautiful.
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Lupita is a breath of fresh air in Hollywood. I really do hope she does some films in Africa as well. Of course Hollywood will never consider her a “classic beauty” by their standards. But the reality is she is prettier than Jennifer Aniston,Jennifer Lawrence,Rachel McAdams,Kate Mara,Olivia Wilde,Margot Robbie,Uma Thurman,Shailene Woodley or any other white female actress they love to hype up. Sometimes it seems only one “pretty dark skin” woman can HOT at the moment. But in a white dominated society there can be numerous “it girls” that happen to be white. Her African features and hair will always be downplayed by the media. They can not allow her “type” of beauty be seen as the norm. Otherwise she will outshine her white counterparts. So most likely Lupita will continue to be underused and play second fiddle to these white girls. But those of us who know true beauty and true talent know who the real gem is. Lupita is on a whole different level. Lupita is captivating every time you see her. Her beauty is otherworldly and puts her ina different class. I hope her star continues to shine!
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@Mueni
“Also,about her wishing she was white, she went to expensive private schools with white people and that must be why. Because the rest of us don’t sit around wishing we were white. That would be so weird.”
.
I can’t recall ever wishing I was white, but I certainly remember not wanting to be PUT on the lowest rung of the socioeconomic ladder – and experience all the pain that comes with existing on that rung
Racism/White Supremacy is an infectious MADNESS. Not everyone escapes the effects and fatality of the DISEASE. (Which is why I’m for segregating our children from whiteness.)
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@Fan
I don’t think any part of the world has escaped the effects of white supremacy. I agree that growing up away from white people has its benefits.
Even in the public schools I went to (in which there were just us ‘natives’) the darker skinned among us would be teased, but for Lupita,or anyone, to react to it by wishing she was actually white skinned strikes me as very unusual and extreme.
@Kushite Prince
I don’t hope Lupita will do just a few movies in Africa. Honestly, I find it heartbreaking that she would completely disregard a place where she could make such a big impact, a place where she can start at the very top, a place where the audience would be interested in any story she has to tell and ready to watch her in any role, and instead spends all her time in America hoping the people there will make a little space for her.
Obviously the industry here is not large or sophisticated but one could look at it as a huge opportunity.
I guess she is young and there is still time so I have some hope. All the same I wish her all the best in her career.
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Lupita is beautiful!! I don’t understand why people refer to her as “Mexican-Kenyan”, however. She left Mexico when she was one and grew up in Kenya. (At least from what I have read.)
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She is pretty. She is also an excellent actress. Her portrayal of Patesy moved me, more so than her looks.
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Perfection.
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