{"id":200171,"date":"2019-01-31T04:23:55","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T09:23:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=200171"},"modified":"2019-01-31T04:23:55","modified_gmt":"2019-01-31T09:23:55","slug":"more-on-jussie-smollett-a-child-actor-who-rose-to-stardom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/01\/31\/more-on-jussie-smollett-a-child-actor-who-rose-to-stardom\/","title":{"rendered":"More on Jussie Smollett, a child actor who rose to stardom"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Smollet’s breakthrough came aboard the hip-hop drama \u201cEmpire,\u201d playing Jamal Lyon, a talented R&B singer struggling to earn his father’s approval and find his place in his dad’s music empire. (File photo<\/a>: Jussie Smollett\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NEW YORK \u2014 TV star and musician Jussie Smollett, who alleges he was the victim of a brutal racial and homophobic attack , is a former child star who grew up to become a champion of LGBT rights and one of the few actors to play a black gay character on primetime TV.<\/p>\n

Smollet’s breakthrough came aboard the hip-hop drama \u201cEmpire,\u201d playing Jamal Lyon, a talented R&B singer struggling to earn his father’s approval and find his place in his dad’s music empire. It became one of the biggest network shows to star a gay black character.<\/p>\n

Smollett, one of the young stars of \u201cThe Mighty Ducks\u201d film in 1992, appeared in Ridley Scott’s science fiction film \u201cAlien: Covenant\u201d in 2017. The third of six children, he also starred in with his siblings in the 1994 ABC sitcom \u201cOn Our Own,\u201d along with sisters Jurnee and Jazz and brothers Jake, Jocqui and Jojo.<\/p>\n

Other film roles include Rob Reiner’s \u201cNorth,\u201d playing Langston Hughes in \u201cMarshall\u201d and playing the son of Halle Berry and Danny Glover in \u201cQueen.\u201d He also guest-starred on \u201cThe Mindy Project.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smollett came out as gay in 2015 in an interview with Ellen DeGeneres, saying, \u201cThere’s never been a closet that I’ve been in.\u201d In response to the alleged attack, the talk show host wrote on Twitter: \u201cI’m sending him and his family so much love today.\u201d<\/p>\n

His work on \u201cEmpire\u201d turbo-boosted his career, earning Emmy and Grammy nominations. His 10-track debut album, \u201cSum of My Music,\u201d was released independently on his own label, Music of Sound, despite interest from major labels. He won the trophy for best supporting actor in a drama series at the 2017 NAACP Images Awards.<\/p>\n

Smollett joined The Human Rights Campaign’s Equality Rocks campaign, joined other \u201cEmpire\u201d cast members in an ad endorsing Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, and his music videos have explored social issues.<\/p>\n

One video for the song \u201cF.U.W.\u201d highlights injustices, from human and LGBT rights to religious and racial prejudices. A woman wears a hijab in one scene, a boy wears a hoodie in another and four women put their fists up as they stand in front of the words, \u201cMy body, my rights.\u201d In one scene, a wheelchair runs over a Donald Trump mask, an apparent reference to Trump’s alleged mocking of a disabled reporter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis song is for the oppressed. That’s why I feel like people will connect with it because it is very broad, because oppression is so broad,\u201d he told The Associated Press in 2017. In his Twitter bio, Smollett wrote: \u201cI am simply here to help save the world. Nothing is more important than love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celebrities from Oscar-winner Viola Davis to supermodel Naomi Campbell were among those sharing support for Smollett. Lee Daniels, Steve Harvey, Janelle Monae, Jada Pinkett Smith and Kevin Hart all took to social media to send their best wishes. The cast of the Broadway show \u201cChoir Boy\u201d dedicated its Tuesday performance to Smollett.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 TV star and musician Jussie Smollett, who alleges he was the victim of a brutal racial and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":200172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-200171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}