“Let me weep, Solomon”. Just that scene made Adepero Oduye simply unforgettable in Steve McQueen‘s 12 Years a Slave.

Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lupita Nyong’o weren’t the only Africans in the Best Picture Academy Award winning movie.

Meet Adepero Oduye, an American-Nigerian actress. If you’ve seen the movie, she’s that woman who couldn’t stop crying

Adepero starred as Eliza in the film. Eliza was separated from her children when a white man bought her from her slave master.

Adepero Oduye is an hails from Brooklyn, New York City. Oduye is one of seven children born to Nigerian parents. She is a graduate of Cornell University; and has studied acting with Wynn Handman, Austin Pendleton, and Susan Batson.

Her theatre credits include Danai Gurira's play Eclipsed, at the Yale Repertory Theatre; The Bluest Eye, at the Hartford Stage and Long Wharf Theatres; and Fela!, in the AEA workshop, directed and choreographed by Bill T. Jones.

Ms. Oduye first starred for writer/director Dee Rees as Alike in the award-winning short film Pariah. Among the other shorts that she has starred in are Gabriele Zamparini's Water; Russell Costanzo's The Tested; and Nadiah Hamzah's Sub Rosa.

She has made guest appearances on such television programs as Louie and two Law & Order series.