TV Star's Wish To Date Lupita Nyong'o Comes True After 5 Years [VIDEO]

Kenyan-Mexican award-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o on Friday, December 23 introduced her new boyfriend to the world through a video shared on her Instagram that went viral globally.

The 39-year-old Oscar-winning actress is now dating Selema Masekela, a 51-year-old American television host, sports commentator, actor and singer.

Nyong'o, daughter to Kisumu Governor Anyang' Nyong'o, shared a series of synchronized videos compiled to one showing her and Masekela snapping along while shifting to different outfits, including their beach wear, with the remix of the song The King’s Affirmation by Iniko and Reuel Williams embedded in the clip.

“We just click!” wrote Lupita. Selema also put up a post describing the actress as his ‘whole and actual love.”

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A post shared by Lupita Nyong'o (@lupitanyongo)

Viral Tea established that Selema's fascination with Nyong'o started as far back as in 2016. 

The TV star described his experience of a chance encounter with the Black Panther actress when he appealed to Twitter users for help in the event that he happened to sit behind her in a passenger aircraft, which he did.

“Hypothetically speaking, of course, let’s say you’re seated behind Lupita Nyong’o on an aeroplane, what would be your opening line?

“Anyone comes up with a good opener for me with Lupita, send 'em. Cause I’m really sitting right behind her on this flight," read his tweet on April 5, 2016, while in Los Angeles, California, USA.

It must have taken the implementation of one of the many witty lines sent to him to win her over as it paid dividends five years later, with a lesson to men to shoot their shot, whether she's out of your league or not.

Masekela was born in Los Angeles, the son of a Haitian mother and South African jazz musician Hugh Masekela. He is also the older half-brother of Survivor: Cook Islands contestant Nathan Gonzalez.

He was raised in Staten Island, New York in the same class as rapper Method Man and in Carlsbad, California, where he attended Carlsbad High School. He is the co-founder of Berkela Motion Pictures with Jason Bergh.

When he was a teenager, Masekela's upbringing brought him to Southern California, where he was first exposed to surfing, snowboarding and skateboarding.

His career began as an intern at Transworld Publications in 1992, home of TW Snow, TW Skateboarding, and TW Surf magazines. He served as an NBA sideline reporter for ESPN during the 2003-2004 season and was a co-host of The Daily 10, a countdown of the day's top 10 entertainment stories, on the E! network until it was cancelled on September 27, 2010 (last show October 1, 2010). 

He was also the host of both the X Games and Winter X Games on ESPN for 13 years but left in 2012 to work for NBC and NBC Sports Network through a contract with Red Bull Media House. 

In 2010, he was hired by ESPN to help as a correspondent in its coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. While working as a correspondent, Masekela was featured, with his father, Hugh, in a series of videos on ESPN.

The series, called "Umlando - Through my Father's Eyes", aired in 10 parts during ESPN's coverage of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa and focused on Hugh and Selema's travels through South Africa, whereby Hugh brought his son to the places where he grew up. It was Selema's first trip to his father's homeland.

TV host Selema Masekela during a surfing event. /FILE

Selema, or Sal as many would call him, wears many hats, apart from sports commentary and TV shows, he is also an actor, having featured in 2015’s Point Break, 2018’s Uncle Drew and an episode of Sneakerheads in 2020.

The Black Panther: Wakanda Forever actress has kept her dating life private, but sparked romance rumours in the past with her Black Panther costar Michael B. Jordan. The duo staged a makeout scene in a photo booth at the InStyle & Warner Bros. Golden Globes afterparty in 2019, but both denied that they were dating.