Where is Jussie Smollett now? All about the alleged hate crime hoax

Jussie Smollett has become one of Hollywood’s most polarizing figures.

The actor’s once-promising career, which began in childhood and crescendoed with a breakout TV role, went off the rails after a personal incident morphed into a full-blown legal soap opera.

After appearing in The Mighty Ducks (1992) amid a string of TV performances, he took a break from acting until 2012. Not long afterward, he secured his best-known role on the musical drama Empire (2015–2019) and even landed in the Alien franchise.

Then came the event that changed his career. In early 2019, he was reportedly the victim of a hate crime, but the actor was later accused of staging the incident himself.

Smollett has been the subject of tabloid fodder and speculation for years. Now, a new Netflix documentary, The Truth About Jussie Smollett, revisits the case via interviews with the Chicago police officials, lawyers, reporters, and witnesses in its orbit. The documentary also features new interviews with Smollett himself, who maintains his innocence, and Ola and Abel Osundairo, the brothers who claim the actor hired them to help stage the assault.

“Despite arduous and expensive attempts to punish me, I am innocent in the eyes of God and our criminal justice system,” Smollett wrote in a social media statement in May 2025.

Here’s everything to know about Jussie Smollett’s case and where he is today.

Who is Jussie Smollett?

Smollett began his career in the early ’90s, first appearing in the TV movie A Little Piece of Heaven (1991) alongside Kirk Cameron, Oscar winner Cloris Leachman, and fellow up-and-comer Lacey Chabert. He gained further notice as young hockey player Terry Hall in the Disney sports classic The Mighty Ducks (1992).

His career continued with a small role in the Alex Haley-penned miniseries Queen (1993), alongside Halle Berry and Danny Glover, and on the big screen in Rob Reiner’s North (1994). Then came a family affair on NBC’s sitcom On Our Own (1994–1995), where he starred alongside his five siblings, including future Emmy nominee Jurnee Smollett.

“To this day, we are the only Black family that had all of the siblings in a scripted show,” Smollett told Variety. “The Culkins cannot say that. The Phoenixes cannot say that.”

After the show’s conclusion, Smollett took a 17-year break from acting.

“I wasn’t a child star. I was just a working actor,” he told Out in 2016. “And then I wasn’t a cutesy kid anymore, but I also wasn’t a leading man.”

In 2012, Smollett began his return to the spotlight. He appeared in the indie film The Skinny, landed a guest spot on The Mindy Project, and launched a music career with his debut EP, Poisoned Hearts Club.

His most acclaimed role came in 2015 with his casting on Empire. He starred as Jamal Lyon, a talented gay musician set to potentially take over the family music empire that his parents, Lucious (Terrence Howard) and Cookie (Taraji P. Henson), are fighting to control.

It’s a role Smollett personally fought for.

“I immediately jumped on Instagram and I direct messaged [Empire co-creator] Lee Daniels and I said, ‘I know that you get this all the time, but I sing, I act, I dance, I write music; I’m a musician. I am Jamal Lyon in more ways than one,’” he told EW in 2015. “He took me through the wringer to make sure that I was the one for Jamal. I went in seven different times. He made me sing for my life.”

During that small-screen run, the then-rising star landed roles in Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant (2017) and the Chadwick Boseman-led biopic Marshall (2017), in which Smollett played legendary poet Langston Hughes.

His Empire role came to a sudden halt, however, after he was accused of staging a hate crime against himself.

What happened in Smollett’s hate crime case?

Smollett, a gay Black man, claimed he was attacked late at night on Jan. 29, 2019, while walking back to his apartment from a Subway restaurant. He alleges that two men yelled racist and homophobic remarks, claimed they were in “MAGA country,” and put a noose around his neck, per the New York Times.

Smollett initially identified his attackers as white males, but the ensuing police investigation took a turn when two Nigerian-American brothers, Olabinjo “Ola” Osundairo and Abimbola “Abel” Osundairo, emerged as the prime suspects. After being detained for questioning, the brothers alleged that Smollett orchestrated the attack himself, paying the brothers $3,500 for their involvement, per AP News.

“He was telling us this is just a thing that’s done in Hollywood,” Ola says in The Truth About Jussie Smollett. “He was going to take the footage that was caught on the camera by his building and put it on social media.”

“I believe he wanted to be the poster boy of activism for Black people, for gay people, or for marginalized people,” adds Abel.

On Feb. 20, 2019, the Chicago Police Department charged Smollett with filing a false police report. He turned himself in the next day. On March 8, 2019, a grand jury indicted him on 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct.

Less than three weeks later, the charges were dropped. Eddie T. Johnson, Chicago police superintendent, said he believed prosecutors secretly brokered a deal and that the allegedly staged attack was a “publicity stunt…to promote his career,” per ABC News Chicago. Assistant State Attorney Joe Magats admitted he was satisfied with the arrangement, while standing behind the investigation “and the facts revealed.”

“Our goal and our No. 1 priority is combating violent crime and the drivers of violence and we look to our resources to do that and I don’t think that Mr. Smollett is a driver of violence or a violent individual,” Magats said. “In return for forfeiting his bond to the City of Chicago and doing his community service, we agreed to dismiss the charges against him.”

In June 2019, the case was reopened when Cook County Judge Michael Toomin appointed a special prosecutor to review the charges, per the New York Times. In February 2020, the actor was indicted on six counts of disorderly conduct.

On Dec. 9, 2021, Smollett was found guilty on five of six counts. Three months later, he was sentenced to 30 months of felony probation, 150 days in jail, and ordered to pay over $120,000 in restitution to the city of Chicago. EW previously reported that Smollett maintained his innocence during his sentencing hearing.

Upon appeal, he was released after serving six days in jail and posting a $150,000 bond.

Where does Smollett’s case stand now?

In 2024, the Illinois Supreme Court overturned Smollett’s 2021 conviction. His legal team successfully argued that the actor should not have been charged again because he fulfilled his side of the bargain — namely, 15 hours of community service and forfeiture of 10% of his original $100,000 bond — in the resolution of his prior indictment. 

Special prosecutor Dan Webb was unequivocal in his response to the overturned conviction.

“The ruling has nothing to do with Mr. Smollett’s innocence,” Webb told the press. “The Illinois Supreme Court did not find any error with the overwhelming evidence presented at trial that Mr. Smollett orchestrated a fake hate crime and reported it to the Chicago Police Department as a real hate crime, or the jury’s unanimous verdict that Mr. Smollett was guilty of five counts of felony disorderly conduct.”

With the case officially closed, Smollett spoke with PEOPLE in 2024, expressing his appreciation for those who stuck by him.

“I’m grateful for the people that know who I am… I’m grateful for the folks that would stand up and defend me, not because they have to, but because they want to, and because they not only believe in me, but they believe me,” he said. “I have some pretty incredible people in my corner, and I am here still because of them. If I did not have them, I can tell you honestly, I wouldn’t still be here.”

What does Jussie Smollett say about the case now?

Smollett adamantly maintains his innocence in The Truth About Jussie Smollett, and points out that his story hasn’t changed in the past six years. To this day, he claims he was attacked by two white men, not the Osundairo brothers.

In the documentary, he directly disputes several of the brothers’ claims. They allege that Smollett paid them for their participation in the alleged hoax. A check from Smollett to Abel for $3,500 — as well as a text message from Smollett to Abel saying he needed Abel’s “help on the low” — were key pieces of evidence in the trial.

Smollett says the check was payment for Abel’s services as a personal trainer. The text, meanwhile, was regarding the procurement of a steroid. “That was for an herbal steroid,” he says in the documentary. “I’m embarrassed to say this, but it was for an herbal steroid that was illegal here in the U.S. that could be gotten in Nigeria, and it was to lose belly fat.”

Similarly, he claims the reason he didn’t hand over his cell phone to the police immediately after the incident was that he didn’t want his drug use exposed.

Smollett calls the investigators who claim he orchestrated the hoax “liars,” saying that they “made it up, every single bit of it.”

Where is Jussie Smollett today?

Smollett is in the early stages of trying to launch a Hollywood comeback. He recently made his feature directorial debut with B-Boy Blues (2021). In 2024, he directed and starred opposite Vivica A. Fox in The Lost Holliday, marking his first acting role since leaving Empire.

In May 2025, Smollett announced he would make a $50,000 donation to the Building Brighter Futures Center for the Arts. The offering was part of a deal to secure his case’s dismissal, but he insisted it was not an admission of guilt.

“Over six years ago, after it was reported I had been jumped, city officials in Chicago set out to convince the public that I willfully set an assault against myself. This false narrative has left a stain on my character that will not soon disappear,” Smollett wrote on Instagram at the time. “These officials wanted my money and wanted my confession for something I did not do. Today, it should be clear… They have received neither.”

This past June, the 43-year-old actor announced his engagement to his boyfriend, actor Jabari Redd. 

In August, EW exclusively announced that Smollett would be a cast member on season 4 of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, a reality competition series in which celebrities partake in challenges used in the real-life Special Forces selection process. He’ll compete alongside The Real Housewives of New Jersey‘s Teresa Giudice, The Valley‘s Brittany Cartwright, and football star Johnny Manziel.

Where can I watch The Truth About Jussie Smollett?

The Truth About Jussie Smollett is now streaming on Netflix.

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