What could possibly be better than co-starring with Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore in the action-packed thriller Non-Stop? Hearing your name among the list of nominations for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role at the 2014 Academy Awards.
It didn’t take long for Lupita Nyong’o to earn an Oscar nod. As an undergraduate at Hampshire College in Massachusetts, the Kenyan actress assisted on the set of the 2005 drama The Constant Gardener when she was inspired by Ralph Fiennes to pursue acting. Eventually, Nyong’o landed a key role in the Kenyan television series Shuga, an MTV production that focused on modern-day Kenyan youth to spread HIV awareness in the U.S.
In 2012, three weeks before graduating from the Yale School of Drama, Nyong’o claimed the role of Patsey in the biography 12 Years a Slave, currently in the running for Best Picture. 12 Years a Slave revolves around Solomon Northup, a recently freed man who is kidnapped and sold back into slavery. Northup’s master has a cruel obsession with Patsey, and thus she pushes herself to work harder than any of the other slaves. Now in Non-Stop (in theaters this Friday), Nyongo’o plays a flight attendant on a plane filled with endangered passengers which air marshal Bill Marks, played by Liam Neeson, must strive to save. Whether awaiting the Oscar or the fate of the passengers on her flight, both will be nail biters.
Sammi Brennan can be reached at samantha.brennan@spartans.ut.edu