It is honestly fairly shocking that after Michelle Yeoh's recent Best Actress win, only two WOC have won Best Actress at the Academy Awards. This is a look at the women who have been nominated for the award (still bleak).
1927 First Academy Awards
Putting this date here for reference!
1935 Merle Oberon for The Dark Angel
Oberon was born in Bombay, British India (now Mumbai, India), the daughter of a Welsh engineer and Sri Lankan mother. She may have also had Maori ancestry through her grandfather. She was the first Asian actress to receive a nomination for Best Actress. However, she chose to hide her ancestry, fearing it would damage her career. She even had portraits of her grandmother commissioned, portraying her with lighter skin. She claimed to have been born in Australia, a story which began to unravel around the time of her death in 1979.
1954 Dorothy Dandridge for Carmen Jones
It took 27 years for the first openly identifying woman of color to be nominated for Best Actress. Dandridge was an African-American singer, dancer, and actress.
1972 Diana Ross for Lady Sings the Blues and Cicely Tyson for Sounder
Another 18 years passed before an African-American would be nominated again, this time two women in the same year. Not that this would start a trend of diversity in nominations, of course.
1974 Diahann Carroll for Claudine
Carroll, an African-American, rose to prominance through movies with black casts like Carmen Jones and Porgy and Bess. She was the first Black woman to win a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role in No Strings.
1985 Whoopi Goldberg for The Color Purple
Another decade passed before another Black actress would be nominated.
1993 Angela Bassett for What's Love Got to Do With It
Look, basically another decade has passed before another African-American is nominated. I'm sensing a theme here. Academy stays doing the absolute least.
2001 Halle Berry WINS for Monster's Ball
2002 Salma Hayek for Frida
Hayek was born in Mexico and is of Lebanese and Spanish descent. Her nomination made her the first Mexican actress to be nominated for Best Actress.
2003 Keisha Castle-Hughes for Whale Rider
Castle-Hughes is of Maori descent. At the time, she was not only the youngest to be nominated for Best Actress, but also the first woman of Polynesian descent to be nominated for the award.
2004 Catalina Sandino Moreno for Maria Full of Grace
Sandino Moreno was the first Colombian, the second South American, and third Hispanic actress nominated for an Academy Award.
2009 Gabourey Sidebe for Precious
2011 Viola Davis for The Help
2012 Quvenzhane Wallis for Beasts of the Southern Wild
In addition to being a Black nominee, Wallis is also the youngest to be nominated for Best Actress, and first person born in the 21st century to be nominated for any Oscar.
2016 Ruth Negga for Loving
2018 Yalitza Aparicio for Roma
Aparicio's parents are of indigenous origin, her father is Mixtec and her mother Triqui. She was the first indigenous American woman to be nominated for Best Actress.
2019 Cynthia Erivo for Harriett
2020 Viola Davis for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Andra Day for The United States vs. Billie Holiday
2022 Michelle Yeoh WINS for Everything Everywhere All At Once
Assuming approximately 5 Best Actress nominees per year, that means that roughly 4% of nominees are minorities of any type when 42% of Americans are non-white.
Source 1 Soure 2