Lucious Lyon

Lucious Lyon (born Dwight Walker) is a fictional character from the Fox drama series Empire, portrayed by Terrence Howard. Lucious is the main protagonist and anti-hero of the series. Created by Lee Daniels and Danny Strong, Lucious is the founder and CEO of Empire Entertainment, a record company that he runs with his family. Realizing he will need a successor after he is diagnosed with ALS, Lucious pits his three sons: the college-educated executive Andre Lyon (Trai Byers), the talented and gay singer-songwriter Jamal (Jussie Smollett), and youngest, rapper Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray), against one another. The story has parallels to William Shakespeare's King Lear and James Goldman's The Lion in Winter, while the character of a rapper and music mogul is loosely based on several real-life figures, including rappers, record producers and politicians. Lyon is married to former wife, drug dealer, ex-con, and former partner of Empire Entertainment, Cookie Lyon (Taraji P. Henson). "The Jay Z story, which very much inspired Lucious Lyon, certain elements of Lucious Lyon, was that story. For me the story of people who have some sort of criminal past, or gangster past are not limited to black culture. ... Our goal is to tell a great story, and to do the best show we can. You can cross the line and just be totally inappropriate, but we're not doing that. ...