By nishtha toshniwal | March 7, 2014 0 Comments

Net Worth: $500,000

Career/Profession: Film Actress

Lupita Amondi Nyong’o is an eminent music director with a marvelous personality. She is an amazing actor who has attained all her fame because of her skills and talent. She is a mix of different originality i.e. Kenyan and Mexican. She has a net worth of about $500 thousand.

Migration from Mexico to Kenya:

Lupita Nyong’o original name was Lupita Amondi Nyong’o and was born on March 1^st, 1983. She was born in Mexico City, Mexico to Peter Anyang Nyong’o and Dorothy. Her father was a Kenyan politician and previously worked in Medical Services as Minister. When Lupita was born, he was working at El Colegio de Mexico as a lecturer in political science. She passed her childhood in Nairobi, Kenya along with her parents. At the age of 16 she was sent to Mexico completed her high schooling there by studying Spanish. For about seven months she lived in Taxco, Mexico and her source of income became the tuition classes that she took in Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico Centre.

Fame she got was as a good speaker:

At present she is living in Brooklyn. She is fluent in various languages such as Luo, English, Swahili and Spanish. She is a very good speaker and gave a speech in Essence Black Women in Hollywood luncheon in Beverly Hills on black beauty. In this speech she talked mostly about the letter that she got from her young fan that showed how much she was impressed with her black beauty and after seeing her photo on the cover page of the magazine she started loving her beauty too. She also talked about her teenager time when she had insecurities about herself because of her black beauty. Her views got transformed when she came into contact with a successful supermodel Alek Wek.

Socialize family helped her:

Nyong’s belongs to a very social family. Her family often used to have a get-together and dinner parties which included performances and plays by the children. She studied in girls’ school in Keny. In this school, she gets to know about her acting skills and became a part of a school group that actively took part in plays. Her career as an actress started with a small role in Oliver Twist. Professionally, she started her career by collaborating with Kenya based company Phoenix Players in Romeo and Juliet where she was starring as Juliet. Being the member of the Phoenix Player she also got the opportunity to work in the plays ‘There goes the Bride’ and ‘On the Razzle’. She was very inspired by the performance of Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg in The Color Purple.

Beginning her career:

After completing graduation in theatre and film studies from Hampshire College she joined many productions of several films such as Mira Nair’s The Namesake etc. She played a lead role in East River, which was directed by Marc Gray and released in 2008. She again planned to return to Kenya and there she started working for the Television series saga and also in one of the MTV Base dramas based on HIV/AIDS prevention. In 2009, she tried her hands on directing and producing too. She directed In My Genes which a short documentary was demonstrating the treatment of albino’s population who were living with Kenyans. This documentary won many awards at Film Festivals. She also directed a music video ‘The little things you do’ and this got nominated for the Best Video Award at the MTV Africa Music Awards in 2009.

She was very passionate about becoming an actress and to pursue her career, she attended Yale School of Drama. There she took part in many stage performances, including Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, The Winter’s Tale, and Shakespeare’s The Taming. At Yale, she was also awarded with Herschel Williams Prize for her outstanding ability as an actress during 2011-2012. In 2014 she starred in Liam Neeson’s film i.e. Nonstop and for this she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. After this she became sixth black beauty to win this award.

12 Years a Slave:

12 Years a Slave, her first movie after Yale Drama School, which gave her a major break in the industry. This movie was released in 2013. She was critically applauded for her role in the movie. This was from Brad-Pitt production and story line was written by Solomon Northup. In this a free man was kidnapped and put down into slave for 12 years. Lupita in this movie played a part of young enslaved woman Patsey who befriends Northup even though she was abused by plantation master. Her role in the film was so amazing that she was nominated for various big awards like Golden Globe Awards, Screen Actor Guild Awards etc.

Always maintained her image:

Her black beauty never led her down. She always maintained her image and remained on the cover page of several magazines such as New York’s Spring 2014 etc. She was also amongst those lucky faces who were chosen for Miu Miu’s Spring 2014 Campaign along with Elizabeth Olsen. She has maintained her fashion icon image and remained regular on Derek’s Blasberg’s Best Dressed list in 2013.