Lupita Nyong’o, Oscar-winning actress, is in Lagos, Nigeria to promote her screen-adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie‘s best-selling novel, Americanah.
Nyong’o, famous for her roles in critically-acclaimed movies such as 12 Years a Slave and Black Panther, was hosted on Saturday by the renowned novelist.
American subscription video-on-demand streaming service, HBO Max, gave a straight-to-series order for the Americanah project in 2019.
Nyong’o is set to star and also act as Executive Producer of the show.
Nyong’o’s Black Panther co-star, Danai Gurira, wrote the pilot and will serve as show runner on the 10-episode limited series.
The 10-episode series which will debut on HBO Max also stars David Oyelowo, Momoh Uzo and other screen stars.
Americanah tells the epic story of Ifemelu ( Lupita Nyong’o), a young, beautiful, self-assured woman raised in Nigeria, who as a teenager falls in love with her classmate Obinze (Momoh Uzo).
Living in a military-ruled country, they each depart for the west, with Ifemelu heading for America, where, despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple for the first time with what it means to be black. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous undocumented life in London.
On the project, Nyong’o shared; “Americanah has been a passion project for me since I read Chimamanda’s beautiful novel in 2013. It’s a tale that is simultaneously timely and timeless. HBO Max is the perfect partner to bring this profound and celebrated story to life, and I’m thrilled that Danai will bring to the project her intelligence, wit, and understanding of the stories and the worlds of Americanah.”
