This week, celebrated Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o pulled in a surprise when she won the Best Lead Actress for Us, a horror film.
Usually, horror films do not get that kind of recognition that other film genres do, so Lupita’s win which was handed to her by the New York Film Critics Circle has been described as a pleasant surprise.
Famously winning an Oscar award in 2014 for the best-supporting-actress after her Hollywood debut in the movie ‘12 Years A Slave’, Nyong’o has been making serious waves in Hollywood.
The Us and Black Panther movie star, who was once told that her skin was too dark for a TV role in Kenya, continues to reject job offers that do not amplify the African perspective.
Even though her blockbuster movies have put Kenya on the global map, the 36-year-old actress is not the first from the country to do so.
Before she first featured in a Hollywood movie, there were other Kenyans already on that big stage. Here are some of them:
