Via Deadline
Fox’s Empire has found its teenage Cookie and Lucious. The flashback characters will be played by Ajiona Alexus and Jeremy Carver, respectively, who will recur along with Ezri Walker (or as we know him, Ezzy!) in the drama’s upcoming Season 3.
Alexus will be young Cookie, seen in flashback as a beautiful, innocent teenager, whose Catholic school uniform can’t hide “the Cookie spark.” Carver will play Lucious in flashback as a teenager with an incredible voice “and a bad-boy edge that captures the heart” of young Cookie.
Walker will play Zeah, described as a nerdy 16-year old “with an edge and real talent as a rapper. With his high GPA and serious smarts, this teenager finds himself torn between a future at an elite university and a career at Empire under the guidance of the legendary Lucious Lyon.”
Musician-actor Walker will be seen co-starring in IFC Film’s The Land in August, and this month he’ll open for Nas during New York’s Central Park SummerStage Festival. He’s repped by Greene & Associates Talent Agency and law firm Davis Shapiro.
Alexus (Code Black) will recur on Tom McCarthy’s Netflix drama 13 Reasons Why, based on the 2007 YA book by Jay Asher. She is represented by Greene & Associates Talent Agency and Society Entertainment.
This is the first major role for Carver.
The three Empire newcomers join recently announced recurring guest stars Taye Diggs and Scott Mescudi. Season 3 of Empire, produced by 20th Century Fox Television, premieres September 21.