Quvenzhané Wallis

Overview

Born
August 28, 2003 · Houma, Louisiana, USA
Nicknames
- Nazie
- Nayzie
Height
4′ 11″ (1.50 m)

Biography

Family

Parents
Relatives

Trademarks

Dog-shaped purses

Trivia

At age 5, Nazie (her nickname), had to fib about her age to audition for her very first acting job--the starring role in Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) because the minimum age to be considered was six. She eventually beat out some 4,000 other local kids to play Hushpuppy--the indomitable child prodigy and survivalist who lives with her dying father in the backwoods bayou squalor of Louisiana. Director Benh Zeitlin told 'The Daily Beast' that when he auditioned Nazie, he immediately realized he'd discovered what he was looking for, and changed the 'Beasts' script to accommodate her strong-willed personality.
The 10th black actress to be nominated for the Best Actress Oscar. She joins the ranks of Dorothy Dandridge, Diana Ross, Cicely Tyson, Diahann Carroll, Whoopi Goldberg, Angela Bassett, Halle Berry, Gabourey Sidibe and Viola Davis. She is also the first nominated to be born in the 21st century for her role in Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012).
In 2013, became the youngest person ever to receive a Best Actress Oscar nomination, for her performance in Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012). She is also the first Academy Award nominee who was born in the 21st century, and remains the only acting Oscar nominee to have been born in the 2000s.
Her name is pronounced "Qua-ven-zhah-nay".
In a ceremony on the night of November 14, 2012, Quvenzhané was acknowledged and honored with the key to her hometown, Houma in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, for her work in Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012).

Quotes

[answering the question 'If you had caused the end of the world, what would you do?'] I would try to fix it. I would go to bed on time and brush my teeth.
My audition turned out to be at the library and my Mom got a call from one of her friends and it was for a six-to-nine-year-old. So my Mom said I couldn't go 'cause I was only five. But we just went and we act like we're having nothin' to do; we had done nothin' wrong. And we just sneaked in because I was like one year younger so we just sneaked in and we walked out like we ain't done nothin'. So they called back and they said they were looking for Nazie. My Mom says, 'Oh, you must be looking for Quvenzhané.' They were like, no, we must have called the wrong person and they almost hung up, but my Mom caught them. And she goes, 'She must have told you Nazie,' and they were like, 'Yes, that's who we're looking for.' And that's Quvenzhané. And they only have found me because the character who is Hushpuppy, she does what is right and she is fearless and that's what I did at the audition.