Mimi Whiteman, Empire

Mimi Whiteman (Marisa Tomei)

Mimi was written as a stereotypical predatory lesbian character, a tough venture capitalist and a Forbes list billionaire. She was the Chairman of the Board of Empire entertainment after having taken control of the company. Mimi was married to Camilla, however, the two repeatedly engaged in affairs.

In season 2, episode 7, there was an uncomfortable, gratuitous (almost) threesome between Mimi, male character Lucious and a woman they jointly picked up while drunk at a party. In celebration of their music streaming merger, Mimi brought out a virtual harem of women for Lucious to choose from. Lucious declared he liked “baby girl in the green” and they decided to share. Mimi was depicted as showing interest in Lucious and moments later, Lucious and Mimi were making out with a half naked call girl sprawled out on a chaise awaiting her turn.

Empire: Mimi with Lucious

They were interrupted when Mimi got a serious phone call. She continued seducing the woman with her makeup running from crying, while Lucious couldn’t quit having flashbacks of his mom’s apparent suicide. Ultimately the entire scene was all a catalyst for Lucious’ “genius”: he left Mimi with the woman and went to the the studio at 4 AM to record. Mimi remained with the woman, but slapped away her hand from her leg.

Later in the season, it was revealed that Camilla had fabricated the marriage to Mimi so that she could take over the business when Mimi died. When this was exposed Mimi sold all of her stock in Empire Entertainment. She was then murdered by Camilla in revenge.

Appearances:

• 5 episodes. Season 2

Female love interests:

• Camilla Marks-Whiteman 💀 (Naomi Campbell, bisexual, recurring, 8 episodes)

Relationship story arc with a woman: Questionable

Male love interests:

• Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard, main cast, 31 episodes)

Relationship story arc with a man: No

Male love interest after being identified as a lesbian? Yes

Filter Relationship Arc:

• None

Storyline during sweeps? No

[1] A relationship story arc is defined as explicit, developed on screen, and lasting more than 3 episodes. It is listed as questionable or subtext if romance is only implied, mentioned instead of shown on screen, part of a dream sequence, or otherwise not explicit for the viewer.
[2] Sweeps episodes air in February, May, July and November, the periods when advertising rates are set. A character is marked as "sweeps" when there is a very limited number of episodes that address their sexuality, all air during sweeps period, and the storyline is otherwise ignore/dropped.