Grace Byers

Grace Gealey was born in Butler, Pennsylvania July 26, 1984, and raised in the Cayman Islands from infancy. She knows sign language due to having deaf parents. After moving to the United States, she received her bachelor's degree in Theater Arts at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Gealey later attended the University of California, Irvine, where she received her Master’s of Fine Arts in acting. 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. 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.