Quvenshané Wallis, Youngest Oscar Nominee for Best Actress

Quvenshané Wallis is one talented young lady. She has achieved something that even seasoned movie actors can only dream about – an Oscar nomination. And she, at the tender age of nine has leapt thousands of hurdles to reach the top.

Her lead role as Hushpuppy in the 2012 movie, Beasts of the Southern Wild, was widely acclaimed by critics, and earned her the first Oscar nomination. It’s not even a “Best Performance by a Child Actor” nomination; it was a “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role,” which already tells us the caliber of her performance. To think that she needed to lie about her real age when auditioning for the part, because she was only five at the time and the minimum age requirement was six. In the 85th edition of the Academy Awards or the Oscars as it is now officially called, she is the all-time youngest nominee for the Best Actress category, as well as for all other categories.

A scream, a burp and a reading skill

Quvenshané impressed film director Benh Zeitlin during the audition. It was to be her first acting job. According to the director, it was Quvenshané’s ability to burp on command, her loud scream and her skill in reading that made quite an impression. Add to that her strong-willed personality and he immediately thought that he’s found a rare gem. She beat more than 4,000 aspirants for the part. The director changed the script to fit her personality, which says a lot.

Her young life

She was born on August 28, 2003, making her age nine at the time of this writing, going on ten. She’s from Houma, Louisiana. Venjie Wallis, Sr., a truck driver is her father and her mom is Qulyndreia, who is a teacher. Her name is a combination of the first names of her parents, while the other half of her name, “zhané,” according to her mom, is a Swahili word for “fairy.” Maybe that’s Quvenshané’s secret; she’s got plenty of fairy dust.

Beasts of the Southern Wild

The first full-length movie of the talented young actress deals with the story of a young girl, Hushpuppy. She was a child prodigy. She’s a survivalist. She lived in the backwoods of a Louisiana bayou in poverty. Her father is about to leave this world.

Beasts of the Southern Wild was premiered in January 2012 at the Sundance Film Festival. It became the Grand Jury Prize winner. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in France, and won the coveted Caméra d’Or for the Best First Feature Film category.

Nominations and Awards

In all, Quvenshané Wallis received 34 nominations for her role as Hushpuppy in her first full-length movie. She had so far, received 17 awards for “Breakthrough Performance,” “Best Young Performer,” or “Best Actress” category from Film Critics Associations in Austin, Chicago, Florida, Hollywood, New York, Phoenix, and others. She also received the Best Breakthrough Performance Award from African-American Film Critics Association, Alliance of Women Film Journalists and the Black Reel Award for Best Actress and Black Reel Award for Breakthrough Performance, as well as the Best Young Performer Award from the Broadcast Film Critics Association.

Future Projects

The young film actress, who seemed to be showered with “fairy dust,” has lined up her next projects. She’s already signed up to star with Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, and Benedict Cumberbatch in the Steve McQueen film, “12 Years a Slave.” She will also have another short-film collaboration with Sundance, entitled “Boneshaker.” It has just been announced that she will play the title role in a new movie adaptation of “Annie”