Gabourey Sidibe may be leaving American Horror Story. The talented actress has been tapped to be part of Empire, a drama pilot for Fox. This is Sidibe’s third TV project after she was nominated for an Oscar for her role in Precious. Her former projects include The Big C and American Horror Story: Coven.
According to Deadline, Empire “centers on Lucious Lyon (played by Oscar nominated actor Terrence Howard), a charismatic, savvy music superstar who is about to take his company, Empire Entertainment, public.”
Sidibe will be a recurring character on the show and she’ll act as a hard working assistant to Howard’s character. The new Fox pilot will reunite Sidibe with Precious Director Lee Daniels and writer Danny Strong – both of whom will executive produce the program.
Other actors in the pilot include Taraji B. Henson (Person of Interest) as Cookie, Lucious’ ex-wife; Malik Yoba (Alphas) as Vernon, his longtime friend and chairman of Empire; and Jussie Smollett (The Mindy Project) as Jamal, his gay, musically gifted son.
This pilot drama will give Sidibe a chance to showcase her acting talents much further. However, she is just a recurring character in the drama so we can’t really say for sure if she will be indeed leaving American Horror Story.
Sidibe is just one of the AHS actresses who have moved on to other projects. Lily Rabe has joined a supernatural drama pilot titled The Visitors, based on Ray Bradbury’s short story The Zero Hour. Rabe is set to play Claire Bennigan, an FBI child specialist who’s investigating mysterious cases involving children and their imaginary friend Drill. Things get personal when Bennigan’s own son gets abducted by the enemy which tests her confidence as a mother and as an agent. The show is being produced by Amblin TV.
Aside from TV, Rabe is also joining a microbudget horror film called The Veil. The film stars Jessica Alba and Thomas Jane. The movie is about the mysteries that are clouding a secret cult called Heaven’s Veil. The members of the cult have all decided to commit suicide, except for one. A 5 year old child survived the cult and has now grown up to reveal the secrets behind the secret group. Rabe will be playing the grown up child and her character returns to the cult’s compound with a documentary film crew. Alba will be the filmmaker while Jane’s role is still undisclosed.
Aside from Sidibe and Rabe, Taissa Farmiga is also rumored to leave AHS. Farmiga is part of a horror comedy film titled Final Girls. Farmiga will be joining actress Malin Akerman and Director Todd Strauss-Schulson (director of A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas and the Onion News Empire pilot) who describes the film as “… Pleasantville in a trashy horror movie from the ’80s with a little Back To The Future thrown in and a spoon full of Terms Of Endearment with a dash of Scream and two dollops of Purple Rose Of Cairo for good measure.”