Grace Byers
Birthdate – July 26, 1984 (40 Years Old)
Birthplace – Butler, Pennsylvania
Grace Byers (birthname: Grace Lillis Gealey) is best recognized as Anika on the long-running Fox series, Empire (2015-2018), as Reeva on the Marvel series, The Gifted (2018-2019), and as Quinn on Amazon Prime’s comedy series, Harlem (2021-present), but has broken through on the big screen in a significant way in 2023.
Byers’ feature debut was a supporting role in writer-director Robert Moresco’s crime thriller, Bent (2018), co-starring Karl Urban, Sofia Vergara, Andy Garcia, and Vincent Spano, and released by Lionsgate. It took five more years, but Byers finally nabbed a lead comedy role in the acclaimed hit horror-satire, The Blackening (2023), with Tim Story directing the ensemble led by Byers including Antoinette Robertson, Sinqua Walls, (co-creator/co-writer) Dwayne Perkins, and Jay Pharoah.
Byers returned to her Cayman Islands roots to film (in a supporting role) the crime comedy, The Retirement Plan (2023), written and directed by Tim Brown, and starring Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman, Ashley Greene, Jackie Earle Haley, and Ernie Hudson.
Videos
Personal Details
Grace Byers was born in Butler, Pennsylvania, and raised in the Cayman Islands by her father and her mother Cheryl McCoy Gealey. For her university education, Byers returned to the U.S., where she majored and graduated with a theater Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of South Florida.
Byers then attended the University of California, Irvine’s graduate theater program, where she earned a Master’s degree in acting. Byers began her post-graduate professional acting career in New York, and then in Chicago. Byers has been married to actor-writer-producer Trai Byers (whom she met on the set of the series, Empire) since 2016; the couple has one child. Byers’ height is 5’ 5”.
Filmography
The Blackening
Allison (2023)
Some Facts About Grace Byers
Parents: Both of Grace Byers’ parents are deaf, and Byers can communicate in sign language.
Author: Byers has written a children’s book, titled I Am Enough (published in 2018), which she wrote based on her recollections of being bullied as the child of deaf parents.
Awards
Nominee, Supporting Actress—Drama Series, NAACP Image Awards (2016).
