Honing her craft: Lupita Nyong'o seen in rare photos from her acting days at Yale School of Drama

She thanked Yale School of Drama when accepting her Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, and now Lupita Nyong’o can be seen in rare photos from her acting days at the prestigious institution.

Lupita, 31, was midway through her studies at Yale when she was offered the role of Patsey in 12 Years A Slave, but it was because of her star turns in various stage productions at the school that an audition was secured.



Yale's Chair of the Acting Department Ron Van Lieu directed the actress in their 2010 production of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya: ‘she brought a deep understanding of the spirituality by which that character had learned to survive... somewhat of the same quality she was able to bring to 12 Years A Slave.’

Scroll down for video

Where she was found: Lupita Nyong'o in rare photos from her days performing at Yale School of Drama

Van Lieu told People magazine, Lupita relied on ‘instinct and an innate sense of truthfulness’ when she first began: ‘She's incapable of lying as an actor, so she had all of that but very little technique.’

Nyong’o also played the lead in Shakespeare’s The Taming Of The Shrew, where she gave a ‘no-holds-barred performance’.

‘It was an interpretation of the play in which Katherine ends up poisoning everyone at the end. You always assume she is undone by the end of the play, but she made her a survivor,’ Van Lieu explains.

Lupita had enrolled at Yale after studying at Hampshire, a liberal arts college in Massachusetts, but she had starred in numerous productions prior to her move to the United States.

Uncle Vanya: Yale's Chair of the Acting Department Ron Van Lieu directed the actress in their 2010 production of the Chekhov play, where 'she brought a deep understanding of the spirituality by which that character had learned to survive'

Celebration: Lupita thanked Yale in her Oscar acceptance speech, who won for her role as Patsey in Steve McQueen's Best Picture 12 Years A Slave



Non-Stop: Lupita's next film role was in the action thriller opposite Julianne Moore and Liam Neeson

Nyong’o made her professional acting debut as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet in a production by the Nairobi-based repertory company Phoenix Players, and later starred in the MTV Africa Kenyan-based TV series Shuga.

The actress considers herself Mexican- Kenyan, and credits Steven Spielberg's 1984 film The Color Purple as giving her the acting bug.

‘I was 9 when I watched The Color Purple,’ Nyong'o told People. ‘It was the first time I remember seeing people who look like me onscreen, my textured hair and complexion. It struck me that I might want to do that someday.’

Lupita’s next film role is a big step away from the historical drama she won an Oscar for, as she stars opposite Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore in the action thriller Non-Stop.

She and Michelle Dockery play air hostesses on a flight carrying Bill Marks, an air marshal who gets a text telling him that unless $150 million is deposited into an offshore account within 20 minutes, someone on the plane will die.