6 things you probably didn’t know about Lupita Nyong'o

14 October 2016 - 02:00 By Shanthini Naidoo
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Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong'o.
Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong'o.
Image: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Disney

The highly-anticipated Disney movie 'Queen of Katwe' opens in SA cinemas on October 14, 2016.

Lupita Nyong'o stars as Nakku Harriet, the mother of an uneducated chess prodigy discovered in the slums of Katwe, Kampala in Uganda.

Here are six things you might not have known about this Oscar-winning actress:

1) She's often referred to as a 'Kenyan actress', but she wasn't born in Africa

She was born in Mexico City, but raised in Kenya. Her family moved there before she turned one.

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2) She's stylish, but not label conscious

Nyong'o usually gets rave reviews for her red carpet looks, but she hasn't always worn designer duds. As teenager, her wardrobe came from second-hand clothing dealers in Kenya's slums.

3) Her hatred for hair relaxers led to her shaving her head

She wears her hair naturally and hates relaxers so much that she shaved off her hair when she was 19. She was reacting to a joke her father made about all the time his daughters spent at the hair salon, saying she should "just cut it all off". "So I did, and my mother was not amused!" says the actress.

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4) She's barely been on screen since winning an Oscar

Nyong'o won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her part in 12 Years a Slave, which opened in cinemas in 2013. This was followed by a role in the action movie Non-Stop in 2014.

Since then she hasn't had a lot of screen time... but her voice has. She lent her voice to Mowgli's adoptive wolf mother, Raksha, in The Jungle Book, and alien Maz Kanata in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

5) She and Queen of Katwe director Mira Nair go way back

Nair and Nyong'o are old family acquaintances. Her father and Nair's husband are best friends, so the director has watched Nyong'o grow up.

Before she won her Oscar, Nyong'o also worked as Nair's intern during filming of The Namesake.

6) She has high profile parents

She is the daughter of a prominent Kenyan politician, Peter Anyang' Nyong'o. Her mother, Dorothy, is the managing director of the Africa Cancer Foundation.

DON'T MISS IT: Read our exclusive interview with Nyong'o in the Sunday Times on October 16, 2016.

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