Empire: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

Empire is a powerful drama about a family dynasty set within the glamorous and sometimes dangerous world of hip-hop music. The show revolves around the Lyon family and their media company, Empire Entertainment. The founder, Lucious Lyon, is the king of hip-hop, but his company and reign are constantly threatened by his family, including his ex-wife, Cookie Lyon; his sons, Jamal, Hakeem and Andre; and a volatile and competitive music industry.

Series details

• Title: Empire
• Format: Scripted
• Language: English
• Genres: Drama, Music
• Premiere date: 2015-01-07
• Final broadcast date listed: 2020-04-21
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: FOX
• Network country: United States
• Typical episode runtime: 60 minutes
• TVmaze community rating: 6.7/10
• TVMaze ID: 1355

Cast and credited roles

• Taraji P. Henson — Cookie Lyon
• Terrence Howard — Lucious Lyon
• Trai Byers — Andre Lyon
• Gabourey Sidibe — Becky Williams
• Bryshere Y. Gray — Hakeem Lyon
• Serayah — Tiana Brown
• Ta'Rhonda Jones — Porsha Taylor
• Jussie Smollett — Jamal Lyon
• Grace Byers — Anika Calhoun
• Andre Royo — Thurston "Thirsty" Rawlings
• Kaitlin Doubleday — Rhonda Lyon
• Nicole Ari Parker — Giselle Simms-Barker

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 2015-01-07; final listed air date 2015-03-18; episode order: 12.
• Season 2: premiered 2015-09-23; final listed air date 2016-05-18; episode order: 18.
• Season 3: premiered 2016-09-21; final listed air date 2017-05-24; episode order: 18.
• Season 4: premiered 2017-09-27; final listed air date 2018-05-23; episode order: 18.
• Season 5: premiered 2018-09-26; final listed air date 2019-05-08; episode order: 18.
• Season 6: premiered 2019-09-24; final listed air date 2020-04-21; episode order: 18.

Source and licence

Adapted from Empire on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.