Jussie Smollett (/ˈdʒʌsi/ JUSS-ee, born June 21, 1982) is an American actor and singer. He began his career as a child actor in 1987 acting in films including The Mighty Ducks (1992) and Rob Reiner's North (1994). In 2015, Smollett portrayed musician Jamal Lyon in the Fox drama series Empire, a role that was hailed as groundbreaking for its positive depiction of a black gay man on television. Smollett has also appeared in Ridley Scott's science fiction film Alien: Covenant (2017) as Ricks and in Marshall (2017) as Langston Hughes. 　　Smollett was indicted in February 2019, for disorderly conduct for staging a fake hate crime assault; the charges were dropped the following month. In February 2020, he was indicted on six counts of making false police reports.