Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o revealed on her new podcast, Mind Your Own , that she toned down her Kenyan accent early in her career. Now, she’s reclaiming it. The KQED’s Snap Studios production (with ad sales and distribution by Lemonada Media) which launched on Thursday, is a 10-part series examining the African diaspora through first-person accounts from across the world to unpack the nuances of Black and African communities today on what it means to belong, according to a news release. The podcast also includes Nyong’o’s experience, and the first episode includes her reflection on her birth in Kenya, life in Mexico, and eventually, the U.S. She shared that as a young actor hoping to make it in Hollywood, Nyong’o decided to mask her Kenyan accent to secure roles. “In order to create this podcast, I had to get very comfortable with my voice. … It has not been easy,” Nyong’o said. “I’ve long had a complicated relationship with the way I speak. … While I was in undergrad, I held on...
