Grace Byers

Grace Byers (née Gealey) is an American actress. She starred as Anika Calhoun in the Fox music-industry drama series, Empire from 2015 to 2018. In 2021, she began starring as Quinn Joseph in the Amazon Prime Video comedy series, Harlem. In 2022, Byers played the leading role in the comedy horror film, The Blackening. Early life Grace was born in Butler, Pennsylvania and raised in the Cayman Islands from about age 2. She knows sign language due to having deaf parents. After moving to the United States at age 18, she received her bachelor's degree in Theater Arts at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Grace later attended the University of California, Irvine, where she received her Master’s of Fine Arts in acting. Career Byers then moved to New York City, where she performed Off-Broadway, including in Venus Flytrap: A Femme Noir Mystery, and Rent. In 2013, she performed in the Chicago productions of The Misanthrope and Tartuffe. In 2014, Gealey was cast as Anika Calhoun in the Fox musical prime time drama, Empire opposite Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson. The series debuted on January 7, 2015. She left the series after four seasons in 2018. In 2017, Byers was cast as Kate, a jazz singer and lounge owner, in the indie thriller Bent, making her big screen debut. In 2018, Byers published a children's book titled I Am Enough, based on her experiences being bullied as a child for having deaf parents. She wrote it to empower children to love and accept themselves.