Whatever Happened To Jussie Smollett?

Jussie Smollett has had quite the interesting journey through the upside-down world of Hollywood. He started working as a child actor all the way back in 1991, as one of six acting Smollett siblings. He was only four when he started in the business, but soon had a resume fit for a king. As a kid, he was a cast member in "The Mighty Ducks" as Terry, Adam in "North," and Jesse in "On Our Own." The latter, a short-lived ABC sitcom, saw five of the six Smollett siblings appear onscreen as part of a flock of seven orphaned brothers and sisters bearing the surname Jerrico. He went on to attain an adult acting career and branch out into other disciplines within the entertainment field, eventually working as a director, writer, and producer.

Then it all came crashing down when Smollett was accused of faking a hate crime against himself. Criminal charges that he lied to police and gave them false statements were dropped, brought back to life, and sent to trial. A conviction ultimately led to the verdict being overturned. In the aftermath, Smollett has continued to maintain his innocence — and has slowly but surely returned to the Hollywood game and put himself on the comeback trail. Where has Jussie Smollett been since his legal entanglements entered the public conversation? What resulted in the early departure of his character from "Empire"? And how did he climb to national acclaim, only to become a controversial flashpoint of tension during the Black Lives Matter movement? 

Jussie Smollett's first major adult role was that of Jamal Lyon, heir apparent to record label exec Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard) and his volatile wife, Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) in Fox's "Empire." A runaway hit that lasted for six seasons, the series saw Smollett play a man figuring out who he is both as a musician and a son. While his brothers have dramatic girl problems and lust after Lucious' throne, Jamal just wants to be his own man, making his own music.

Jamal and Lucious often clash over Jamal's sexuality; Jamal is a proudly out gay man within the family, while Lucious abhors his refusal to be closeted. While Jamal is a smart, talented musician in his own right, he wants to be seen as anything but a nepo baby and a charity case. His father despairs because he wants Jamal to be a touring mega-act. When Cookie is released from prison, she becomes Jamal's manager and coaxes him into the spotlight — and away from Empire records and his father's dole. Step by step, Jamal gains the courage to come out publicly and become himself as a musician — causing personal and professional discord within the family.

Four seasons of career and romantic ups and downs promptly settle in. Jamal becomes a bigger success, and finds himself representing Cookie in the eternal battle against his father for ownership of Empire Records. His dad's chosen scion is Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray), Jamal's older brother, who is reckless in romance and in business. During Season 5, Jamal brings home a new boyfriend, Kai Givens (Toby Onwumere) from Europe. The happy couple plan to settle down together, but Kai worries that his status as an HIV-positive person will be exposed by the media and used against Jamal and his family. In the end, he has the courage to go through with the wedding and they settle into wedded bliss together. Lucious also finally shows some acceptance toward Jamal, walking his son down the aisle at the ceremony. 

"Empire" was just the leg up that Jussie Smollett's career needed. The actor quickly grabbed a supporting role in "Alien: Covenant," which follows "Prometheus" in the franchise's continuity. "Alien: Covenant" takes place 11 years after "Prometheus," following a crew of colonists flying on the titular ship. They seek to make Origae-6 their home. But an accident wakes the crew early from stasis, and their communication equipment picks up the sound of human voices on a closer, seemingly even more habitable planet than Origae-6. Anyone who's seen a film in the "Alien" franchise knows that something is very rotten in Denmark, and before you can say "boo," there are xenomorphs all over the place. Smollett plays Ricks, the ship's navigator. Ricks manages to make it to the end of the film, although he and his wife Upworth (Callie Hernandez) eventually meet gruesome ends.

Smollett was very excited about the process of filming "Alien: Covenant," telling The Latin Times that he was proud of making it aboard the "Alien" series. "It was a great experience. It was overwhelming but it was wonderful. I remember being 8 years old, I used to watch two movies when my parents were out, I shouldn't have watched those movies but I used to watch 'Boyz n The Hood' and 'Alien.' We loved those movies and to be part of the franchise is pretty special." He added that his younger brother was especially excited about his casting.

"Alien: Covenant" also got Jussie Smollett a foothold in the prestige movie world. His appearance in "Marshall" — a biopic of Thurgood Marshall (played by the late Chadwick Boseman), the first Black Supreme Court Justice — is brief but interesting. He plays poet and activist Langston Hughes, who meets and banters with Marshall in a nightclub. The movie mainly deals with Marshall's time as a defense attorney for Joseph Spell (Sterling K. Brown), who stands accused of rape and attempted murder in Bridgeport, Connecticut. 

Smollett enthused happily about being invited to be a part of the film. "One day, Reginald Hudlin [director of 'Marshall'] came to me and asked me 'I want you to do a cameo on my next movie' and I was like 'are you kidding me?', of course I want. It's funny because that's like the smallest role that I have ever done but it's one of the things that I am the most excited about," he told The Latin Times. 

He also told Essence Magazine's Podcast "Yes, Girl" that he hoped to shed light on the friendship between Marshall and Langston. "It wasn't known that Thurgood Marshall and Langston Hughes were friends. But they were. And one point, roommates. They were like brothers."

While Smollett was still on "Empire," he also began a screenwriting and directing career. First, he directed two episodes of "Empire" — Season 4's "Fair Terms" and Season 5's "What is Done." After he left the program he moved on to direct two films: 2021's "B-Boy Blues" and 2024's "The Lost Holiday." He produced and wrote the screenplays for both films as well. "B-Boy Blues" concerns a clash of cultures that takes place when a journalist from Brooklyn (Timothy Richardson) falls for a bike messenger from Harlem (Thomas Mackie). Their romance is a battle between uptown and downtown — can love be sustained? 

Smollett was very excited about his directing career when Variety approached him for comments about his directing debut on "Empire." "I always joked that I wanted to be the black, male Barbra Streisand — because she does it all and she does it well," he said, referring to his career as a musician, producer, writer, director, and actor. The multi-hyphenate said he learned the most from John Singleton, but he professed to admiring Alfred Hitchcock, Spike Lee and George Cukor. "There are certain directors that I love — I love certain styles that they do. I was inspired, and I was able to do that."

From directing, writing, acting, and singing, Smollett soon became a producer. His first executive producer credit is on the 2015 film "Sacred Heart." He also co-produced a Food Network series featuring his family, "Smollett Eats." The show focuses on the entire extended Smollett brood — including his actress sister Jurnee — as they cook meals for one another. Smollett also produced the independent feature "90 Days," the digital series "Giants," and the Epix docuseries "America Divided," which was also co-produced by "Grey's Anatomy" and "Bridgerton" creator Shonda Rhimes, Norman Lear, and actor-rapper Common. It focuses on educational, labor and social inequity. Smollett also appeared in it as a talking head. 

Smollett told Alt-Africa that he doesn't pigeonhole himself as any sort of specific creative, be it a producer or a director or a writer. "I feel I like to be able to create. I'm a creator. I don't know that I even call myself one specific thing. I'm a creator. So it kind of was just the natural next step, if you will," he said at the time. Smollett added another hyphen to his name by using the musical storylines on "Empire" as a springboard into his own musical career; his album, "Sum of My Music," was released in 2018. He also had several successful singles off of the "Empire" soundtrack, including "Nothing to Lose," "You're So Beautiful," and "Good Enough."

Everything in Jussie Smollett's life changed when he claimed that he was the victim of a hate crime on January 28, 2019, in Chicago, Illinois. Alleging that he had been approached by two men shouting slurs at him regarding his race and sexual orientation, Smollett said that he had a chemical poured on him, they struck him several times, and wrapped a rope around his neck. The actor also alleged his assailants shouted slogans associated with President Donald Trump's political campaign. He was treated and released from a local hospital, but by February 21, he had been arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and filing a false police report. They claimed that the actor also falsified threatening letters to himself in an attempt at getting a raise at "Empire." Police questioned the two brothers who committed the alleged attack, Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, and they said that Smollett paid them over $3,000 to falsify the assault.

Initially charged with 16 felony counts, the claims against Smollett were dropped in March on a plea deal. He agreed to pay $10,000 and do community service in exchange for his record being expunged. But a fresh special prosecutor filed new charges in February 2020. Smollett was eventually charged with making false claims to police officers about the incident, who declared that physical evidence did not match his story. The case went to trial in December 2021, and Smollett was convicted of five of the six charges of felony disorderly conduct stemming from filing a false police report and lying to police. He was sentenced to 150 days in jail, was ordered to pay a $25,000 fine and restitution to the city of Chicago to the tune of $120,000. The actor spent six days in prison but was released from jail in March 2022 pending an appeal. In December 2023, the appeals court upheld the legal decision two to one.

Jussie Smollett's legal woes left "Empire" with a big mess on its hands. The show had nearly completed filming Season 5 when word of Smollett's arrest came down; producers responded initially by removing him from the last two episodes of Season 5. Jamal's evaporation from the family's tribulations was explained away as him getting stuck on his honeymoon in the Seychelles due to inclement weather. 

In June 2019, Lee Daniels announced on his X, formerly known as Twitter, feed that Smollett would not be back the following season, debunking a Variety story about the actor's return. The show did what it could by having Jamal move to Europe with his husband at the start of Season 6. The change was handled with some brief dialogue between Cookie and Becky Williams (Gabourey Sidibe), one of Jamal's closest friends, near the start of Episode 1. Becky explains that she wants to have a sleepover and that she and Jamal used to dress up for them all the time. "No wonder that boy ran off to London," Cookie remarks. When Becky says she misses him, Cookie agrees, but instead of going on and on about her feelings asks Becky to tell her more about the slumber party.

And that's the end of Jamal Lyons' storyline. "Empire" lasted one more season without Jamal, and Smollett stayed away for the entirety of Season 6. With his biggest hit thus far in the rearview mirror, Smollett began to forge an identity outside of his beloved character — and good news followed, both in his personal life and his professional world.

On November 21, 2024, Jussie Smollett's conviction was overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court. Smollett's attorney argued that his previous agreement with the city caused the secondary round of felony charges created by the special prosecutor to be a violation of Smollett's due process rights. They also claimed that the charges violated constitutional protections against double jeopardy cases. Ultimately, the ruling said in part that charging Smollett twice, "would be arbitrary, unreasonable, fundamentally unfair, and a violation of the defendant's due process rights."

Dan K. Webb, the special prosecutor appointed by the state to continue Smollett's investigation, noted in a statement that the decision did not change anything regarding his innocence. "The Illinois Supreme Court did not find any error with the overwhelming evidence presented at trial that Mr. Smollett orchestrated a fake hate crime and reported it to the Chicago Police Department as a real hate crime, or the jury's unanimous verdict that Mr. Smollett was guilty of five counts of felony disorderly conduct. In fact, Mr. Smollett did not even challenge the sufficiency of the evidence against him in his appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court." Guilty or innocent, happy with the verdict or left bitter by the outcome, it looks like Smollett is likely to have paid his full restitution to the state of Illinois, leaving him free to return to acting.

The reversal of the actor's conviction couldn't have been more timely or fortuitous, as he has a new film to promote. "The Lost Holiday" was written, directed, and produced by Jussie Smollett, all independently and on his own dime. He also penned the soundtrack, which contains new original songs from him. The film is all about Cassandra Marshall (Vivica A. Fox), who is devastated to learn her son, Damian Holiday (Jabari Redd), has died. She flies out to take care of the arrangements for his funeral, only to learn he has a husband named Jason (Smollett) that she has never met. 

Smollett admitted his movie was inspired by his own life story, and the fact that his father died the same day that "Empire" premiered. Joy and grief colliding in his life, Smollett had a hard time processing his emotions at the time. "I really tried to start channeling that into something. And somehow this story came up." he told alt-Africa. The conflict between Jason and Cassandra is inspired by the one that sprung up between his mother and one of his father's relatives, and Cassandra is loosely based on his mother in general. Given a limited release in AMC theaters back in September, there was expressed hope among the film's producers that it would gain a wider release thanks to word of mouth. Time will tell if Smollett pulls off the ultimate comeback or is forever stuck living with the reputation that his fight with the justice system has given him.