Before They Were The Lyon Family: 11 Things You Didn’t Know About The Cast Of “Empire”
Grace Gealey Is A Caribbean Queen
Gealey, who plays the ever so annoying new love of Lucious Lyon, Anika Calhoun, was born and raised in the Cayman Islands. Caymanians stand up! She didn’t come to the States until she decided to attend the University of South Florida. She spoke about how very few actors and actresses come out of the Caymans:
“I never thought of the acting field because of the fact that it’s not a profession that was widely pursued by a woman in the Cayman Islands. It wasn’t that I thought ‘yes, acting is what I want to do.’ I just knew that I liked to perform and I love to express myself through art. As I got older I realized that was acting and that I loved performing. It wasn’t until I actually went to school at the University of South Florida, until I realized that in order to make this a profession; this is what I would have to do to pursue it.”
