Nigerians In the Diaspora Doing Big Things: Adepero Oduye

Meryl Streep think's she's extraordinary – and the critics have called her debut performance in Pariah 'incandescent'

Adepero Oduye: an astonishing debut. Photograph: Jonathan Leibson/WireImage

When she went up to collect her best actress gong at the Golden Globes last week Meryl Streep forgot her specs. She'd written down a list of "extraordinary performances by women" in 2011 but couldn't read it. One name she had no trouble recalling was Adepero Oduye (getting some whoops from the audience). Oduye makes a stunning debut in the shoestring indie Pariah, playing a 17-year-old New Yorker, Alike (Ah-leek-kay), who's tentatively coming out as a lesbian – her conservative parents are practically barricading the closet. And it's not just Streep who is impressed; critics have described her as "incandescent" (New York Times) and "unforgettable" (Rolling Stone).

1. Pariah
2. Production year: 2011
3. Country: USA
4. Runtime: 86 mins
5. Directors: Dee Rees
6. Cast: Aasha Davis, Adepero Oduye, Pernell Walker

Brooklyn born and bred, at 33 Oduye is almost twice the age of the teenager she plays. She studied medicine before deciding to become an actor after her dad died ("It was a wake up call").
She met director Dee Rees at an audition to play Alike in Rees's graduation short film – also called Pariah. Semi-autobiographical and based on Rees's own coming-out, the short became a feature exec produced by Spike Lee and shot in 18 days. "You don't have to be young, black or gay," Oduye says of the film's universal appeal: "I related to Alike's thing of not knowing who you are and not feeling like you belong.