On my blog Lattes and Lipstick I love to do a weekly segment called Brown Beauty of the Week where I feature beautiful brown women that are garnering fashion and media praise and I decided that since we celebrate brown on this fabulous blog that I would add this segment here, but I’ll entitle it Brown, Beautiful, and Killing It. For the first installment of Brown, Beautiful and Killing It, I decided to focus on the unexpected star of the critically acclaimed film by director Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave, Lupita Nyong’o.

Born in Mexico City, raised in Kenya and educated in the U.S., Lupita did not have a large part in the film, but in every scene she was in, she stole the movie. Lupita, studied film and theater at Hampshire College and after graduating she worked on the film crew of notable films The Constant Gardner and Namesake.

She later returned to Kenya to star in the Kenyan drama Shuga and wrote and directed a short film called In My Genes, which focused on the treatment of albinos in Africa and debuted in several film festivals. After these small successes, Lupita returned to America to study at Yale’s School of Drama. After graduating from this program, she sharpened her acting chops in 12 Years a Slave.

Interview and Traditional Dress

https://youtu.be/dSxwjpmGAss

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Lupita N’yongo Look of the Day by lattes-n-lipstick featuring vintage makeup