‘Empire’ Alum Grace Byers Joins ‘The Gifted’ Season 2 at Fox

By Joe Otterson

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Grace Byers is staying in the Fox fold, with the now former “Empire” actress joining the -Marvel series “The Gifted” for its upcoming second season.

Byers will play Reeva, described as a smart, charming, authoritative, elegant, beautiful woman who is ruthless in her efforts to fight for her people. She leads an elite band of followers and has a soft spot for her new recruits, but is still capable of extreme violence in defense of her vision.

“Empire” marked Byers first major onscreen role, playing Anika Calhoun (or as Cookie not-so-affectionately called her, Boo Boo Kitty). In 2016, She married her “Empire” co-star Trai Byers, who plays eldest Lyon son Andre. Byers recently departed the series after Anika died in the Season 4 finale. Byers also starred in the indie thriller “Bent” in 2017 and published a New York Times bestselling children’s book titled “I Am Enough” earlier this year.

She is repped by Gersh, Principal Entertainment, and attorney Erik Hyman.

“” is set in the “X-Men” universe. It follows a suburban couple whose lives are rocked by the sudden discovery that their teenage children possess mutant powers. Forced to go on the run from a hostile government, the family seeks help from an underground network of mutants and must fight to survive. It stars Stephen Moyer, Amy Acker, Natalie Alyn Lind, Percy Hynes White, Sean Teale, Jamie Chung, Emma Dumont, Blair Redford, and Coby Bell.

The series is produced by 20th Century Fox Television in association with Marvel Television. Matt Nix, Bryan Singer, Lauren Shuler Donner, Simon Kinberg, and Marvel’s Jeph Loeb and Jim Chory serve as executive producers. Nix, who serves as the series’ showrunner, wrote the pilot, which was directed by Singer.