Quvenzhané Wallis

Quvenzhané Wallis (/kwəˈvændʒəneɪ/ kwə-VAN-jə-nay; born August 28, 2003) is an American actress and author. She is best known for her roles as Hushpuppy in the drama film Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) and Annie Bennett in the 2014 adaptation of Annie.

In 2012 she became the youngest actress ever to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, as well as the first (and, to date, only) person born in the 21st century nominated for an acting Oscar. In 2014, Wallis received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical for Annie.

In 2017, Wallis published two books, Shai & Emmie Star in Break an Egg! and A Night Out with Mama. She has since published two more books: Shai & Emmie Star in Dancy Pants! and Shai & Emmie Star in To the Rescue!.

Wallis was born in Houma, Louisiana, to Qulyndreia (Jackson) Wallis, a teacher, and Venjie Wallis, Sr., a truck driver. She has one sister, Qunyquekya, and two brothers, Vejon and Venjie, Jr. Her name "Quvenzhané" combines the first syllables of her parents' first names in "Quven", and an alteration of the Swahili word jini meaning 'sprite' or 'fairy'.

Wallis, at age five, lied about her age to audition for her first acting job, the starring role in Beasts of the Southern Wild, because the minimum age to be considered was six. She eventually beat out 4,000 others for the role of 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 Wallis, he immediately realized he had discovered what he was looking for, and changed the Beasts script to accommodate her strong-willed personality. Her reading ability, loud scream, and the skill of burping on command impressed the director and won her the part. Zeitlin has also stated that "it was just the feeling behind her eyes".

The film premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January 2012 to rave reviews, winning the Grand Jury Prize. In May 2012, Wallis flew to France for the premiere of the film at the Cannes Film Festival. The film received much acclaim and praise for Wallis' outstanding performance, and it won the prestigious Caméra d'Or award for Best first Feature Film. On January 10, 2013, at age nine, Wallis became the Academy Awards' youngest nominee for Best Actress and third youngest in all categories. However, she was just six during the filming. Wallis is the first African-American child actor to earn an Oscar nomination. She is also the first person born in the 21st century to be nominated for an Academy Award.

Wallis had a role in the film 12 Years a Slave (2013), and collaborated with Sundance for the second time on a short film called Boneshaker. In 2014, she played Annie Bennett Stacks in Annie. Quvenzhané made history as the first African American to play Annie. For this, she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical and received praise from most reviewers, despite the film being considered a poor adaption of the classic Broadway show. In May 2014, Wallis was named the face of Armani Junior, Giorgio Armani's line for children and teens. This makes her the first major child celebrity to be the face of a luxury brand.

She was also featured in Beyoncé's 2016 short film "Lemonade", appearing in the music video "Formation". In October 2017, she released two children's books: Shai & Emmie Star in Break an Egg! (which is about friendships) and A Night Out With Mama (which is about her night at the Oscars with her mother). She followed those with two more books: Shai & Emmie Star in To the Rescue! and Shai & Emmie Star in Dancy Pants! in 2018.