Tavia Nyong'o (born 1974)[citation needed] is a critic and scholar of art and performance.

Nyong'o was the 2004 runner-up for the Ralph Henry Gabriel Dissertation Award given by the American Studies Association annually for the best doctoral dissertation written in the field of American studies.

Prior to his appointment at Yale, Nyong'o taught in the Department of Performance Studies at New York University.

[1] His book, The Amalgamation Waltz: Race, Performance, and the Ruses of Memory, is published by the University of Minnesota Press (2009),[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] and won the Errol Hill Award.

[citation needed] Nyong'o, who is of Luo heritage, was born in the Midwestern United States, and raised there and in Kenya.