Lupita Amondi Nyongo born 1 March 1983 is a KenyanMexican actress and author She began her career in Hollywood as a production assistant In 2008 she made her acting debut with the short film East River and subsequently returned to Kenya to star in the television series Shuga 20092012 In 2009 she wrote produced and directed the documentary In My Genes She then pursued a masters degree in acting from the Yale School of Drama She had her first feature film role as Patsey in 12 Years a Slave 2013 for which she received critical acclaim and won several awards including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress She became the first Kenyan and Mexican actress to win an Academy Award She made her Broadway debut as a teenage orphan in the play Eclipsed 2015 for which she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play She went on to perform a motion capture role as Maz Kanata in the Star Wars sequel trilogy 20152019 and a lead voice role as Raksha in The Jungle Book 2016 Her career progressed with her role as Nakia in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film Black Panther 2018 and her starring role in Jordan Peeles critically acclaimed horror film Us 2019 In addition to acting she supports historic preservation She is vocal about preventing sexual harassment and working for womens and animal rights In 2014 she was named the most beautiful woman by People She has also written a childrens book named Sulwe 2019 which became a numberone New York Times BestSeller Also in 2019 she narrated the Discovery Channel docuseries Serengeti which earned her a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Narrator She was named among Africas 50 Most Powerful Women by Forbes in 2020 Description above is from the Wikipedia article Lupita Nyongo licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia