Welcome to a new special feature at Divination Hollow Reviews! Horror is filled with iconic, memorable people, and through this series we hope to highlight those who have made an impact. Starting with our contributors, we’ll be highlighting the folks who inspire them, from scream queens to writers, filmmakers to musicians, cosplayers to reviewers and beyond! Today, contributor Neka talks about her horror icon, Lupita Nyong’o.

Lupita - an exuberant, vibrant actress of Kenyan-Mexican heritage - is my horror icon.

Although her performances in film are not exclusive to Horror, Lupita’s portrayal of reflective and vulnerable characters that experience tyranny, tragedy and situations that cause deep anguish, such as Patsey in the biographical film 12 Years a Slave, often embody a principle pertinent to the genre; an inability to hide from the truth of reality can sometimes be the most disturbing thing we face.

For me, this is most apparent in Lupita’s work as Adelaide/Red in US, a psychological horror film written and directed by Jordan Peele. Adelaide and her family (a husband played by Winston Duke, daughter Shahadi Wright Joseph, and son Evan Alex) suddenly become targets for murder, of their identical selves, dubbed as the ‘Tethered’, each of whom are armed with vicious attack skills and quite suave matching red uniforms.

Through a nail-biting series of events, we come to learn more about Adelaide’s story, as well as the origin of the Tethered. I often thought about the concept of the hidden self and the repression that can come with turning away from our emotions, pain and experiences - whether pleasurable or hurtful - at multiple times whilst watching the film. No matter where we run, or how fast, there is always our reflection nearby waiting to reveal what has been hidden or is still hiding.

This is one of the golden threads that seem to weave effortlessly between all of the roles Lupita seems to play: as a lover, a warrior, a fighter, a stranger and, most of all, one who overcomes. A lesson I pull from them all, particularly those from her Horror works, is as such:

Our best outcome can arise when we face terror head on - not alone, not waiting to be saved or purely fearless, but connected.

We, alone, may not always be able to overcome our challenges, but together, as we turn to ourselves and each other, we can find the strength to fight and live another day.

Lupita Amondi Nyong'o was born March 1, 1983 in Mexico City, Mexico, to Kenyan parents, Dorothy Ogada Buyu and Peter Anyang' Nyong'o. Her father, a senator, was then a visiting lecturer in political science. She was raised in Kenya. At age 16, her parents sent her back to Mexico for seven months to learn Spanish. She read film studies at Hampshire College, Massachusetts and, after working as a production assistant on several films, graduated from the Yale School of Drama's acting program. In 2013, she impressed cinema audiences in her film debut, as brutalized slave Patsey in acclaimed director Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave (2013). She was also the lead in MTV's award-winning drama series, Shuga (2009), appeared in the thriller Non-Stop (2014) and had roles in the big-budget films Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015) and The Jungle Book (2016).

Lupita's stage credits include playing "Perdita" in "The Winter's Tale", (Yale Repertory Theater), "Sonya" in "Uncle Vanya", "Katherine" in "The Taming of the Shrew", as well as being in the original production of Michael Mitnick's "Elijah".

Lupita played the female lead, Nakia, in the 2018 superhero film Black Panther (2018).

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Seventh Sense Communications and don @ minifie-1

IMDB / Instagram / Twitter / TikTok