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 (2009–2012).

Soon after her graduation, she had her first feature film role as Patsey in Steve McQueen's biopic 12 Years a Slave (2013), for which she received critical acclaim and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

[12] Her father, a former Member of the Kenyan Parliament and past Minister for Medical Services, serves as the Governor of Kisumu County, Kenya as of July 2024.

[25][26] Nyong'o began her career working as part of the production crew for several films, including Fernando Meirelles's The Constant Gardener (2005), Mira Nair's The Namesake (2006), and Salvatore Stabile's Where God Left His Shoes (2007).

[1]Immediately after graduating from Yale, Nyong'o landed her breakthrough role[29] when she was cast in Steve McQueen's historical drama 12 Years a Slave (2013).

[14][16] The film, which met with widespread critical acclaim, is based on the life of Solomon Northup (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free-born African-American man of upstate New York who is kidnapped and sold into slavery in Washington, DC, in 1841.

Nyong'o portrayed Patsey, a slave who works alongside Northup at a Louisiana cotton plantation; her performance garnered rave reviews.

[30] Empire reviewer Ian Freer wrote that she "gives one of the most committed big-screen debuts imaginable," and Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called her "a spectacular young actress who imbues Patsey with grit and radiant grace".

[34] The blue Prada dress she wore to the awards garnered substantial media attention and acclaim, being considered one of the classic red carpet gowns in Hollywood history.

[39] Following a supporting role in the action-thriller Non-Stop (2014),[40] Nyong'o co-starred in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) as Force-sensitive space pirate Maz Kanata, a CGI character created using motion capture technology.

[43] Scott Mendelson of Forbes described Nyong'o's role as "the center of the film's best sequence," and Stephanie Zacharek of Time magazine called her a "delightful minor character".

[55] Her performance garnered critical acclaim; Charles Isherwood of The New York Times hailed Nyong'o as "one of the most radiant young actors to be seen on Broadway in recent seasons," and added that she "shines with a compassion that makes us see beyond the suffering to the indomitable humanity of its characters.

[58][59][60][61] Nyong'o co-starred in Jon Favreau's The Jungle Book (2016), a live-action/CGI adaptation of its 1967 animated original, voicing Raksha, a mother wolf who adopts Mowgli (played by Neel Sethi).

"[66] Geoff Berkshire of Variety wrote, "Simply radiant in her first live action role since winning an Oscar for 12 Years a Slave [...] [Nyong'o] imbues what could have been a stock mother figure with such inner fire that Harriet feels worthy of a movie all her own.

[69] In preparation for the role, Nyong'o learned to speak Xhosa and undertook judo, jujitsu, silat, and Filipino martial arts training.

[74] Following the success of Black Panther, Nyong'o starred as a kindergarten teacher dealing with a zombie apocalypse in the comedy horror film Little Monsters (2019).

[79] At Universal Studios Hollywood's Halloween Horror Nights, Nyong'o attended a maze inspired by the film and appeared inside the attraction dressed as her character Red.

[82][83] Nyong'o spoke on the lack of African women narrating nature documentaries and how the Serengeti team encouraged her to use her native Kenyan accent on the series.

[81] She hosted the Channel 4 documentary Warrior Women with Lupita Nyong'o, in which she undertook a journey across Benin, West Africa, to search for the Dahomey Amazons.

[88] She appeared on the Global Citizen organised television event, Together at Home and joined the radio play presentation of Richard II from The Public Theater and WNYC as The Narrator.

[91] Nyong'o partnered with Nairobi-based media and tech startup Kukua in support of YouTube Originals' STEM-themed, Super Sema (2021), which became Africa's first kid superhero animated series.

[94] Nyong'o won the Outstanding Limited Performance in a Children's Program category at the 48th Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards for her involvement in Netflix's television series, Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices (2020).

[98] The following year, Nyong'o starred in Simon Kinberg's ensemble spy-thriller The 355 (2022) alongside Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Fan Bingbing, and Diane Kruger.

[103] Also in 2024, Nyong'o began hosting the podcast Mind Your Own, in which she tells stories from the African diaspora and talks about experiences relating to her own life and Kenyan heritage.

She was also mentioned in the parody song "American Apparel Ad Girls" by the drag queens Willam Belli, Courtney Act and Alaska Thunderfuck.

[121] That July, she was chosen as one of the first celebrities, along with Elle Fanning, Christy Turlington Burns, and Natalie Westling, to star in Tiffany & Co.'s Fall 2016 campaign styled by Grace Coddington.

[131] In October 2018, Nyong'o became a two-time honouree, alongside her Black Panther co-stars Danai Gurira and Angela Bassett for Elle magazine's "Women in Hollywood" issue.

[144] In 2014, the National Trust for Historic Preservation recruited Nyong'o in an effort to oppose development, including a new minor league baseball stadium, in the Shockoe Bottom area of Richmond, Virginia.

[148] Nyong'o is involved with the organisation Mother Health International, which aims to provide relief to women and children in Uganda by creating locally engaged birthing centres.

[149] In April 2016, Nyong'o launched an anti-poaching "hearts-and-minds" campaign with her organisation Wildaid in advance of the Kenya Wildlife Service ivory burn that occurred on 30 April, during which the Kenyan government burned one hundred five tonnes of ivory and 1.35 tonnes of rhino horn in a demonstration of their zero-tolerance approach to poachers and smugglers who were threatening the survival of elephants and rhinoceros in the wild.