Grace Gealey
Grace Gealey
Grace Byers is an American actress, known for her role as Anika Calhoun in the Fox music-industry primetime soap opera, Empire...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionTV Actress
Date of Birth26 July 1984
CityButler, PA
CountryUnited States of America
born grew islands moved time until
My mother is Afro-Caribbean and my father is Caucasian-American, and I was born in Pennsylvania and moved to the Cayman Islands when I was about 2. So I grew up there with my mother, and it's really all I know. I grew up there until it was time to go to college, and that's when I moved back to America.
challenges compassion deaf faced fact given grace insight intricate life lived living raised rarely suspect time
Living the life I have lived - being raised by deaf parents, assimilating to a different culture, and the challenges I have faced over time - has given me insight to the fact that each person has their own complex, intricate story, and it's rarely what I suspect it is. We must have compassion and grace for each other. We must.
allow born effort flow freely gone hate love minute shell store takes time truly
We may not know what each day has in store for us. We could be gone tomorrow. Any minute could truly be our goodbye. But we do have this moment. This time. Today. Right now. It takes way more effort to shell out hate then it does to allow love to flow freely in our lives. After all, it's what we were born to do.
beat celebrate energy fallible future gentle inform instead learn light mess nature past spirits time truth
I don't have time to beat myself up over my fallible nature. Instead I use my energy to learn from my past and let it inform my future. It's time to own all of our glory, mistakes, mess and light and be gentle to ourselves. Let's be kind to our spirits and celebrate the truth of our hearts.
ability aware easy fact love presence small time work
It's so easy to get whisked away in the hubbub of friends, work and busy-ness, but we need to take the time to be still and become aware of ourselves. The small things. The fact that we're still breathing. Our ability to move. The presence of love around and in us. Our strengths. Our opportunities. Our journeys.
ends hardest hoping jobs solid standing time
There were times when I was working three jobs at one time, and I was still auditioning just to make ends meet, and I was hoping that something was going to come through. Especially after you have two degrees, standing solid through the process is sometimes the hardest part because there is no guarantee.
definitely grace guard life monitor protect pun though
Even though there will be times when I'll need to protect myself - there will definitely be times when I'll have to put up my guard just to monitor what comes in and out of my life - there's a grace there... no pun intended!
twice
I am very disciplined with my skin - I tone and I moisturize my skin twice a day. I also exfoliate, and I try to get a facial, like, once every two months.
above charles embraced gave gifts god goes jackson jobs lift list mark mess michael others ray selves steve thank
Lift others and yourself as you rise above this mess of comparison. Thank God for those who embraced their true selves and gave us gifts that only they could give: from Steve Jobs to Michael Jackson to Ray Charles to Mark Twain. There are so many more, and the list goes on.
again breaks crazies eliminate life nearly sisterhood women
When I look around at this world, we women need each other so badly, it breaks my heart. Sisterhood is dissipating, and we aren't doing nearly enough to salvage it. Eliminate the crazies in your life, yes. But also look again at those around you.
aware came definitely realized women
When I came to America, that's when I started to feel that there was a lot of push-back from women. I was definitely made aware that I am light-skinned. I realized that was a thing here.
audience deals death experience feels human identify ignored sibling
'Empire' deals with the black experience, the human experience, sibling rivalry, what it feels like to be ignored or doted upon by a parent, illness, death. There are so many things that I think the audience can identify with.
cross fact home knew pursued though viable widely
Because of the fact that being a professional actor is not a career that is widely pursued back home in the Cayman Islands, I never thought it was a viable profession. It didn't even cross my mind. So when I knew I wanted to do theater, I didn't think 'actress,' even though I loved to perform.
available came coming home months movies three watch
Back home, we watch a lot of movies, and that was never available to us. When I came to America, I was like, 'No, it's really coming out this Friday? Not three months from now?'