Ajiona Alexus Brown (born March 16, 1996) is an American actress and singer. She began her career starring in the TV One sitcom The Rickey Smiley Show (2012–2014), and later played Teenage Cookie Lyon in the Fox musical drama series, Empire (2016–2019). She starred in the Netflix teen drama series, 13 Reasons Why (2017–2018), the Hulu supernatural thriller, Light as a Feather (2018–2019), and the starz crime drama, BMF (2021). Alexus also starred in films Something Like Summer (2017), Acrimony (2018),Breaking In (2018), Mary J. Blige's Real Love and Strength of a Woman (2023)