Portrayed by Taraji P. Henson , Cookie is one of the main characters within the series, the queen bee and the wife of former drug dealer turned hip-hop mogul, Lucious Lyon Terrence Howard who gets released from prison and strikes out to lay claim to half of their multimillion-dollar record label, which was initially funded by her drug money. In the show's first episode , Cookie gets released from prison and immediately visits Jamal , her gay son Jussie Smollett , the only member of the family that has kept in touch with her.
Cookie then confronts Lucious Terrence Howard demanding half of the company, but he refuses and instead offers her a seven-figure income and living arrangements. She quickly realizes that her youngest son Hakeem Bryshere Y. Gray wants nothing to do with her. The oldest and most qualified businessman, Andre Trai Byers , convinces Cookie to manage Jamal's career, which puts Jamal and Hakeem head to head, and results in Cookie and Lucious being at odds.
During Season 1, Cookie also schemes to get Jamal to come out publicly during Hakeem's debut performance at Lucious' club. While that plan falls apart, Jamal ends up performing with Hakeem anyway. He later performs a song You're so Beautiful that reveals his sexuality to the public, infuriating Lucious. Cookie is later confronted by federal agents who want her to testify in front of a grand jury against the drug dealer that she ratted out to obtain her release who was Frank Gathers.
In Season 2, after the arrest of Lucious, she attempts a hostile takeover of Empire, but fails due to the investor siding with Lucious and Jamal, further damaging Jamal and Cookie's relationship.
Frank Gathers then sends Jermel's severed head to Cookie and Carol. She tells Lucious to take care of it, which leads to Gathers being killed by his own goons. Cookie creates a new company with Hakeem named Lyon Dynasty after the failed hostile takeover , which creates conflict with Lucious' Empire. In Season 3, further conflict occurs in the Lyon family as Rhonda Andre's wife is killed, Andre gets into trouble and Shyne attempts to eliminate one of her sons.
