‘Empire’ Cast: Before They Were Stars

Terrence Howard as Lucious Lyon

"I didn't think Terrence wanted to do TV," Empire co-creator Lee Daniels said about his leading man. Although Howard had been a part of the Law & Order: LA cast in 2010, he had mostly been focusing on films since, including Daniels' The Butler, as well as The Best Man Holiday and St. Vincent. But Howard was really just looking for interesting roles and had taken a short arc on M. Night Shyamalan and Chad Hodge's Fox limited series Wayward Pines (due in May) when often co-star Taraji P. Henson told Daniels Howard had to be the Lucious to her Cookie.
Taraji P. Henson as Cookie Lyon

Henson was hot off of an emotional Person of Interest exit and a couple of strong leading roles in films like No Good Deed, which she was focused on when she met with Daniels for the role of Lyon matriarch and scene-stealer Cookie on Empire. "I’ve been doing this a long time, and I really hate TV; I’m just going to say it! I don’t like it because I’ve always felt trapped in a little box, literally speaking. 'You’ve got to stick to these words right here!' 'But if I say it like this, the audience might connect better.' 'No, you’ve got to say it like this!' [But] finally I get to this incredible project, and I say a little something, and then they yell cut, and usually the crew falls out, and Danny [Strong says], 'Say it, what else you got!' " Henson said.
Jussie Smollett as Jamal Lyon

Smollett started performing at the age of 4 and starred in a TV show with his siblings when he was a preteen. The show, On Our Own, only lasted one season, and though he was in a big movie (North) at the time, he ended up leaving the limelight behind — at least until Empire. "My parents divorced, and we moved, and there were a lot of things going on. Just growing up and becoming myself and going to school, that was really that time when I really delved deep into music and was a songwriter," Smollett said. He was focused on that — and released an EP in 2012 — when Empire, which combined his two greatest loves, came around. "Music was always something that I could do, even if I had a regular job. You can always do music at night, but you can’t go on auditions if you have a job from 10 to 6, so music was always there [and] music is my love, no matter what. Auditions close; making music never ever closes. So that’s what I was doing, and it lead to this. The music wasn’t huge, but it did well enough that I was able to support myself with it, and therefore I was able to go back to auditioning," he said.
Bryshere Y. Gray as Hakeem Lyon

Philadelphia rapper Gray aka Yazz the Greatest was working on an album and playing music festivals like Powerhouse and Jay Z's Made in America when he got a call from Empire producers, who had seen his music skills and wanted to challenge him as an actor. "I was in the studio … I had just gotten my first record deal. I was playing a lot of big music shows [like] Powerhouse. Lee Daniels called me and wanted me to be Hakeem. They picked me because they liked my charisma, they liked my style. I was just blown away!" Gray said.
Trai Byers as Andre Lyon

The classically trained Byers was no stranger to soap operas when Empire came around, having had arcs on daytime staple All My Children, as well as The CW's 90210 remake. Getting notice and acclaim for his role in Selma, Byers was looking for something to challenge him again when he connected with the Empire script. "It’s a story about people. It deals with real subject matters, and I had gone through a period in my life where there was a lot being asked of me in regard to my humanity, and this story spoke to that as well," he said.
Kaitlin Doubleday as Rhonda Lyon

Doubleday is no stranger to television, or pilot season. She has run the gamut for the past decade on everything from the short-lived Cavemen to the more mainstream CSI and Criminal Minds, and most recently ABC's short-lived comedy Mixology, Lifetime's Witches of East End and USA's Royal Pains. But Doubleday isn't a huge fan of pilot season because "for me, the creative process gets kind of stifled by the pressure to book one of these jobs." The pressure is certainly off now, after connecting with Lee Daniels and Danny Strong, as well as the role of Rhonda on Empire. "I really liked the scenes that I got to audition with for Rhonda. They were the scenes in the pilot where she’s like, 'What if your brothers went to war against each other?' but they were longer and more manipulative and sexy, and I thought, 'Oh this is so twisted and fun and different!' And I asked my boyfriend to read the lines with me, and he’s a half-black DJ, and he was laying in bed watching TV and I literally just put the lines in front of his face and crawled on top of him and started to manipulate him into reading the lines with me [which mirrored the scene with Rhonda and Andre]," Doubleday recalls.
Ta’Rhonda Jones as Porsha

Jones was living in Chicago and working as an assistant at a nursing home while also working on her own music when she got a call in the middle of the night telling her about auditions looking for female rappers. The opportunity, she says, was too huge to pass up, even though it seemed like it could have been a long shot. Jones went in, initially for the role of Tiana but eventually booking the role of fan favorite Porsha, Cookie's assistant. It was fate, the actress said. "I am Porsha," when it comes to about everything from her job as an assistant to her wardrobe, hair and makeup.
Grace Gealey as Anika Calhoun

Gealey has a master's of fine arts in acting from the University of California at Irvine but spent much of her career in the theater scene in New York, where she also performed in short films and commercials. Empire marks her television debut. "I had literally just moved to Chicago a few months before booking Empire. I was auditioning for pilots, and I was getting a couple of bites, but there was just something about this script. You don’t really see a lot of scripts that come across your lap that have such a diverse cast — and I mean that in all forms, including race. And these people were high class, professional people who were educated, who were smart, who had so many layers," Gealey said.

Terrence Howard as Lucious Lyon

Taraji P. Henson as Cookie Lyon

Jussie Smollett as Jamal Lyon

Bryshere Y. Gray as Hakeem Lyon

Trai Byers as Andre Lyon

Kaitlin Doubleday as Rhonda Lyon

Ta’Rhonda Jones as Porsha

Grace Gealey as Anika Calhoun