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Jake Smollett | |
|---|---|
 Smollett at the 2009 Comic-Con | |
| Born | July 29, 1989 New York, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1992–present |
| Relatives | Jussie Smollett (brother) Jurnee Smollett (sister) |
Jake Smollett (born July 29, 1989) is an American actor and cooking personality.
 | This section needs to be updated.(September 2018) |
Smollett was born in New York City to a family of actors, the son of Janet ( née Harris) and Joel Smollett. [1] His father was Ashkenazi Jewish (his family immigrated from Russia and Poland), and his mother is African-American. [2] [3] [4] [5] Smollett began his career as a diaper model. His first role in a scripted series was in Hangin' with Mr. Cooper . He then starred alongside his five brothers and sisters in the ABC sitcom, On Our Own . Smollett also starred alongside his sister Jurnee Smollett as Samuel L. Jackson's son in the critically acclaimed [6] feature film Eve's Bayou , [7] directed by Kasi Lemmons. He was in ABC Family's [8] The Middleman . Jake portrayed Noser, [9] a character derived from Javier Grillo-Marxuach's [10] comic book. The entire cast of The Middleman sat on the panel for Comic-Con in July 2009.
In 2016, Smollett joined his five siblings—brothers Jojo Smollett, Jussie Smollett, Jocqui Smollett and sisters Jazz Smollett and Jurnee Smollett—on Food Network to cook family-style meals every Saturday on Smollett Eats. He also appeared as a guest judge on Food Network's hit show Chopped Junior . In 2017, Jake joined Rachael Ray on The Rachael Ray Show all season long for cooking segments.
Hangin' with Mr. Cooper is an American television sitcom that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 1992, to August 30, 1997, starring Mark Curry and Holly Robinson. The show took place in Curry's hometown of Oakland, California. The series chronicles Mark Cooper (Curry), an NBA player-turned-substitute teacher/gym coach, and his roommate Vanessa (Robinson).
Mark John Geragos is an American criminal defense lawyer and the managing partner of Geragos & Geragos, in Los Angeles.
Kasi Lemmons is an American film director, screenwriter, and actress. She made her directorial debut with Eve's Bayou (1997), followed by Talk to Me (2007), Black Nativity (2013), Harriet (2019), and Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody (2022). She also directed the Netflix limited series Self Made (2020), and an episode of ABC's Women of the Movement (2022).
Holly Elizabeth Robinson Peete is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Judy Hoffs on the Fox police drama 21 Jump Street, Vanessa Russell on the ABC sitcom Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, and Dr. Malena Ellis on the NBC/The WB sitcom For Your Love. She also served as one of the original co-hosts of the CBS Daytime talk show The Talk. She is also known for her portrayal of Diana Ross in the 1992 miniseries The Jacksons: An American Dream, which also aired on ABC.
Eve's Bayou is a 1997 American Southern Gothic drama film written and directed by Kasi Lemmons, who made her directorial debut with this film. Samuel L. Jackson served as a producer, and starred in the film with Lisa Nicole Carson, Jurnee Smollett, Lynn Whitfield, Debbi Morgan, Meagan Good, and Diahann Carroll. The film premiered at the 1997 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in theaters on November 7, 1997. The film grossed $14 million domestically on a budget of $4 million, making it the most commercially successful independent film of 1997.
Jurnee Diana Smollett is an American actress. She began her career as a child actress appearing on television sitcoms, including On Our Own (1994–1995) and Full House (1992–1994). She gained greater recognition with her role in the critically acclaimed Kasi Lemmons directed film Eve's Bayou (1997), which earned her a Critics' Choice Movie Award.
Jussie Smollett is an American actor and singer. He began his career as a child actor in 1991 debuting in The Mighty Ducks (1992). From 2015 to 2019, Smollett portrayed musician Jamal Lyon in the Fox drama series Empire.
The Middleman is a comic book series written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach with art by Les McClaine and published by Viper Comics. The series was initially intended to be a television pilot that went on to be published as a comic, before being picked up as a TV series for the 2008 season by ABC Family. The show was cancelled the same year.
On Our Own is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from September 13, 1994, until April 14, 1995. The series stars Ralph Louis Harris and six real life siblings: Jazz, Jocqui, Jake, Jojo, Jurnee, and Jussie Smollett.
The Middleman is an American television series. The series, which was developed for television by Javier Grillo-Marxuach for ABC Family, is based on the Viper Comics series, The Middleman, created by Grillo-Marxuach and Les McClaine. The series ran for one season in 2008.
A Little Piece of Heaven is a 1991 American made-for-television family drama film directed by Mimi Leder, written by Betty Goldberg, starring Kirk Cameron, Chelsea Noble, Lacey Chabert, Jenny Robertson, Ron McLarty, Jussie Smollett, and Cloris Leachman. It originally premiered December 2, 1991 on NBC.
A racial hoax occurs when a person falsely claims that a crime was committed by member of a specific race. The crime may be fictitious, or may be an actual crime.
The 16th Youth in Film Awards ceremony, presented by the Youth in Film Association, honored outstanding youth performers under the age of 21 in the fields of film, television, theater and music for the 1993-1994 season, and took place on March 19, 1995, at the Sportsmen's Lodge in Studio City, California.
The YoungStar Awards, presented by The Hollywood Reporter, honored young American actors and actresses from ages 6–18 in their work in film, television, stage and music. Winners were chosen via a poll of 3,500 entertainment industry insiders who read The Hollywood Reporter. The awards ceremony was held from 1995 until 2000; there was no ceremony in 1996.
Empire is an American music drama television series created by Lee Daniels and Danny Strong for Fox that ran from January 7, 2015, to April 21, 2020. It is a joint production by Imagine Television and 20th Century Fox Television and syndicated by 20th Television. Although it is filmed in Chicago, the show is set in New York. The series centers on the fictional hip hop music and entertainment company Empire Entertainment, and the drama among the members of the founders' family as they fight for control of it. It stars Terrence Howard, Taraji P. Henson, Bryshere Y. Gray, Jussie Smollett and Trai Byers as members of the Lyon Family, along with a supporting cast including Grace Byers, Kaitlin Doubleday, Gabourey Sidibe, Ta'Rhonda Jones, Serayah, Malik Yoba and Vivica A. Fox.
Jamal Joseph Lyon is a fictional character from the American musical drama, Empire on Fox. Portrayed by Jussie Smollett, Jamal is the middle son of hip-hop mogul Lucious and his wife Cookie. Jamal, a talented R&B singer and songwriter, struggles to gain his father's approval, but is able to overcome this adversity with Cookie's support. He initially expresses resentment towards fame and is hesitant to be in the limelight, but he gradually embraces it once Cookie begins to manage his career. Jamal engages in what was once a friendly competition against his younger brother and best friend Hakeem to determine who is more musically gifted, while maintaining a cold distance from his older brother Andre for his perpetual scheming. Jamal struggles with his father's objection to his homosexuality, which was inspired by Empire creator Lee Daniels' own relationship with his father.
Empire: Original Soundtrack from Season 1 is the debut soundtrack album by the cast of the musical drama television series Empire, which airs on Fox. The album includes songs that featured during the first season of the show, and performed by various artists. The album was released by Columbia Records. The soundtrack received positive critical reception and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart in the United States. On September 11, 2015, another soundtrack titled Empire: The Complete Season 1 was released containing every song heard on the show that weren't included on the official soundtrack.
Drop the Mic is an American musical reality competition television series that premiered on October 24, 2017, airing on TBS for its first two seasons before moving to TNT for its third season on January 23, 2019. The show is based on a recurring segment on The Late Late Show with James Corden.
The 47th Image Awards, was presented by the NAACP, commemorating roles, talents, and achievements of people of color in film, television, music and literature during the 2015 calendar year. This ceremony was hosted for the third time by Anthony Anderson on the TV One network.
On January 29, 2019, American actor Jussie Smollett approached the Chicago Police Department and reported a hate crime that he had staged earlier that morning. He planned the fake hate crime with two Nigerian-American brothers, Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, who had worked as extras on the set of television drama Empire, in which Smollett was a cast member. During the staged attack, which took place on East Lower North Water Street in Chicago's Streeterville neighborhood, the disguised brothers shouted racial and homophobic slurs while one poured bleach on Smollett and the other placed a noose around his neck. In addition to falsely reporting that he had been attacked by two unknown individuals, Smollett described one of them as a white male. He also told police the men shouted "This is MAGA country" during the attack, a reference to the Trumpist political slogan "Make America Great Again". The brothers later testified that Smollett staged the attack near a surveillance camera so that video of it could be publicized.