Loretha "Cookie" Lyon (née Holloway) is a fictional character from the American musical drama Empire on Fox.

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.

During Season 1, Cookie also schemes to get Jamal to come out publicly during Hakeem's debut performance at Lucious' club.

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.

After Jamal is shot by Freda Gatz, Frank Gathers' daughter, Cookie tries to fix the Lyon family's mistakes.

Her family then starts to fall apart after the arrival of Giluana, Lucious' former lover, as well as the removal of Bella Lyon by child services.

In Season 4, Cookie takes over as CEO of Empire while Lucious is receiving 'help' from Nurse Claudia after the devastating explosion.

Executive producer Lee Daniels revealed that Cookie was loosely based on the women in his life including his sister as well as Joan Collins' Dynasty character, Alexis Colby.

[4] Henson said in an interview with TV Guide, that Cookie is the "hood version of Mama Rose from Gypsy."

On February 26, 2014, it was announced that Taraji P. Henson, best known for her Academy Award-nominated performance in the 2008 film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and her most recent stint on the CBS drama, Person of Interest had been cast in the role of Cookie Lyon.

"[8] Actress and comedian Mo'Nique who also co-starred in the film Precious as the mother of the title character (portrayed by Sidibe)—for which she won an Academy Award—revealed that Daniels had also offered her the role of Cookie, but the network rejected the idea accusing her of being "difficult.

Like Henson, who lost her son's father three years after giving birth, Cookie "did whatever she had to do" to support her family.

"[18] Henson referred to Cookie as "an animal" out for what belongs to her, and stated that her love of fur and leopard prints relates to that theme.

[19] "On the Lee Daniels-created series, she operates as if she has something to prove with every step of her stilettos, every word that leaves her lips, and every silent but symbolic glare.

The character has drawn several comparisons to Alexis Carrington, the femme fatale famously played by Joan Collins on Aaron Spelling's 1980s prime time soap opera, Dynasty.

[12] Tim Stack of Entertainment Weekly said that "In Henson's hands, Cookie becomes a hot-blooded mother lion in Louboutins, sure to be the show's most quoted character.

"If Samuel L. Jackson had a baby with Bette Davis, it would be Taraji", says Jussie Smollett, who plays Henson's son Jamal in the series.

"I felt like her character was unprecedented in that I'd never seen a woman or a mother like this on TV, so full of trouble and saying all the wrong things and yet you understand where she's coming from.

With her claw-like fake nails and exaggerated wigs, Cookie's a force to be reckoned with, both by the other characters and the actors who play them.

[25] Jozen Cummings of The New York Post noted Cookie Lyon's similarities to real-life Sugar Hill Records co-founder Sylvia Robinson.

[26] In May 2015, Henson won the Critics' Choice Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series for her portrayal of Cookie.