Chiwetalu Ejiofor nominated for Oscar along with Leonardo DiCaprio for Best Acto Academy Award.

CNN correspondent Zain Asher grew emotional on-air Thursday while sharing the amazing news of her brother's Oscar nomination.

Her brother Chiwetel Ejiofor has just been nominated for a Best Actor Academy Awardfor his role in "12 Years A Slave." Asher expressed her joy at the news, telling Brooke Baldwin, "Everyone is so excited, so emotional, so overwhelmed at this because we have been waiting for this for a long time."

She said it was "unbelievable" for her mother — who grew up without running water in Nigeria — to see her son nominated for an Oscar. But there was also a tragic side to the story that brought tears to Asher's eyes.

"It is a kind of sad day as well because my father isn't alive anymore, so he can't see this," she said, choking up.

"When Chiwetel was twelve years old, he was in a car accident with my father and everybody in the car died apart from Chiwetel," Asher said. "So he has that chance he was given... he really has gone on to make the most of it."