 Actor Jesse Smollett arrested in Chicago, police spokesman. Actor Jesse Smollett has been arrested after he was charged with lying to police when he claimed he was attacked and beaten by two masked men shouting racist and homophobic slurs, Chicago police said on Thursday on Twitter. Smollett, a 36-year-old black, openly gay actor on the hip-hop TV drama Empire, ignited a firestorm on social media by telling police on January 29 that two apparent supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump had struck him, put a news around his neck and poured bleach over him.