Tyler Perry

1969–present

Tyler Perry News: Entertainment Mogul Accused of Sexual Misconduct

An actor has filed a lawsuit accusing media mogul Tyler Perry of sexual assault and harassment on the set of his TV series The Oval.

According to the Associated Press, Derek Dixon filed the suit in Los Angeles Superior Court on June 13 and is seeking at least $260 million in damages. He accuses Perry of creating “a coercive, sexually exploitative dynamic with Mr. Dixon—initially promising him career advancement and creative opportunities, such as producing his pilot and casting him in his show, only to subject him to escalating sexual harassment, assault and battery, and professional retaliation.”

Dixon says Perry sent sexually explicit messages and assaulted him on multiple occasions. The 55-year-old director and producer then offered the actor a raise in an effort to keep him quiet, Dixon maintains.

Perry’s attorney Matthew Boyd said the allegations are false and that his client is “confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”

Perry serves as the writer, director, and executive producer for The Oval, the BET political drama that debuted in October 2019 and recently aired its sixth season.

Tyler Perry is a writer, actor, producer, and director known for his signature character Madea as well as a host of movies and TV shows. Born in New Orleans, Perry had a difficult childhood and later experienced homelessness while trying to make it in theater. His 1992 self-produced musical initially bombed, but Perry reworked the show and finally attracted an audience six years later. By 2000, the playwright had created Madea for the stage. As the gun-toting, sharp-tongued grandma became more and more beloved, it opened the doors to Hollywood. Perry’s movies include Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Madea Goes to Jail, Why Did I Get Married?, and The Six Triple Eight. Among the TV shows he’s developed are House of Payne, The Haves and the Have Nots, and Sistas. As an actor, Perry has notably appeared in Alex Cross, Gone Girl, Vice, and the Madea franchise.

FULL NAME: Tyler Perry
BORN: September 13, 1969
BIRTHPLACE: New Orleans, Louisiana
CHILD: Aman
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Virgo

Tyler Perry was born Emmitt Perry Jr. on September 13, 1969, in New Orleans. He was named after his father, Emmitt Perry Sr., who worked as a carpenter. His mother was Willie Maxine Perry, who worked at a local daycare.

One of four children—including older sisters Yulanda and Melva and younger brother Emmbre—Perry had a difficult childhood and suffered years of abuse at the hands of Emmitt Sr. He once described his father as a man “whose answer to everything was to beat it out of you.” The boy also had problems outside the home, as he later admitted he was sexually abused by four different adults.

At one point, Perry attempted suicide in an effort to escape the difficulties of his life. His vivid imagination offered an escape, and he leaned heavily on religion to help him cope. It was his mother who first took him to church. “I’m so grateful for that,” he later told People. “If I wouldn’t have had that, I don’t know where I’d be. That was our North Star, the Bible, faith, church.”

Editor’s Note: If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or self-harming behaviors, call or text 988 to get help from the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

Perry legally changed his first name to Tyler when he was 16 to distance himself from his dad. As an adult, he discovered Emmitt Sr. wasn’t his biological father. “I was relieved because my image of a father was not somebody who could do that to their child,” Perry said in the 2023 documentary Maxine’s Baby: The Tyler Perry Story. After learning about Emmitt’s family past—including his own abuse during childhood—Perry has since forgiven the man who raised him. “To his credit, we were never hungry, he never left the family, he always brought every dime he made home to my mother,” Perry said in 2017. “So in return for what he did then, I still do the same thing for him even though we don’t have a relationship.”

Tyler Perry had an incredibly close bond with his mother, Maxine, who inspired his Madea character.

In contrast, Perry was incredibly close with his mother, who went by her middle name Maxine. She inspired his most famous character, Madea. Her death in 2009 left a huge absence in Perry’s life, but he continues to rely on her memory today. “When I’m walking around or whatever I’m doing, I’m carrying her in my spirits,” he said in 2023.

Perry dropped out of high school, but he eventually earned his GED. Trying to find his way professionally, he held a series of unfulfilling jobs before discovering his passion for storytelling.

Watching an episode of Oprah Winfrey’s talk show, Perry was inspired by a comment on the program about how writing about difficult experiences could lead to personal breakthroughs. He started a series of letters to himself, which became the basis for the musical I Know I’ve Been Changed. The production tackled tough subjects such as child abuse, but it also touched on forgiveness, a theme which has remained central in many of Perry’s works, and reflects his deep connection to his Christian faith.

After saving up $12,000, Perry debuted the musical—which he directed, produced, and starred in—at an Atlanta theater in 1992. The show’s run lasted only one weekend and drew a measly 30 audience members.

Disappointed yet determined, Perry continued to work odd jobs while reworking the show. He staged I Know I’ve Been Changed in several other cities, but success still eluded him. Broke, Perry was living out of his car for a time. “Can you imagine a 6-foot-5 man sleeping in a Geo Metro?” he once told Essence magazine.

In 1998, Perry tried one more time to win over theater audiences. He rented out the House of Blues in Atlanta for another production of I Know I’ve Been Changed. This time, it clicked. Perry was soon performing to sellout crowds, and the musical was moved to a larger theater. After so many years of hard work, he had finally earned critical acclaim as well as commercial success.

After I Know I’ve Been Changed, Perry adapted the novel Woman, Thou Art Loosed by evangelist T.D. Jakes for the stage. The play proved to be quite popular, but it’s staying power paled in comparison to the main character in his next project.

Tyler Perry portrays his popular character Madea during a 2017 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Perry’s 2000 play, I Can Do Bad All by Myself, brought to life his most famous character, Mabel “Madea” Simmons. The playwright based the gun-toting, sharp-tongued grandma on his mother and several other mature women in his life. In lieu of casting anyone for the role, Perry played the eccentric character himself while wearing drag.

Madea next appeared in the 2001 play Diary of a Mad Black Woman. Perry continued featuring the character, who had developed quite a following, in his subsequent shows. She anchored Madea’s Family Reunion (2002), Madea’s Class Reunion (2003), Madea on the Run (2015) and Madea’s Farewell Play (2019), among six other original plays.

Perry toured extensively with his shows in the early 2000s. At one point, an estimated 35,000 people per week attended his productions. The popularity presented Perry with the chance to jump to the big screen. Today, 10 of his plays have been adapted into movies or TV series, including many of the Madea productions.

In 2005, Perry proved himself to be an immediate box-office powerhouse with the release of his debut film, Diary of a Mad Black Woman. Based on Perry’s play of the same name, the movie starred Kimberly Elise as a scorned wife and Steve Harris as her adulterous husband. Perry appeared as three different characters in the film, including the legendary Madea. Eventually grossing more than $50 million, the movie’s success showed Hollywood that there was a market for urban Black comedies.

Perry’s plays continued to successfully make the leap to the big screen. Madea’s Family Reunion (2006)—a movie Perry directed, produced, and starred in—brought in more than $63 million at the box office. Establishing his own studio in Atlanta that year, Perry launched his first TV show, House of Payne, on the TBS network. Starring Cassi Davis and LaVan Davis, this sitcom featured a multigenerational Black family across eight seasons.

Tyler Perry accepts an NAACP Image Award for his comedy series House of Payne in 2009.

Back on the big screen, Perry continued making movies about family, morals, and overcoming adversity. Daddy’s Little Girls (2007) starred Idris Elba as a father who fights to regain custody of his three daughters with help from a lawyer played by Gabrielle Union. It was notably his first screenplay not based on one of his previous plays. In Why Did I Get Married? (2007), Tyler explores the relationships of several married couples. The large cast included singers Jill Scott and Janet Jackson, as well as Perry sans his Madea costume. His next movie, Meet the Browns (2008), was another big-screen adaptation of an earlier play. The film, which Perry also directed, starred Angela Bassett as a single mother who takes her two children to meet her father’s family after his death. The project was then adapted for a TV sitcom the following year.

Perry’s next movie release, The Family That Preys (2008), starred Kathy Bates and Alfre Woodward as two longtime friends who try to heal their broken families. In 2009, Perry released the hit film Madea Goes to Jail and also had a small role as Admiral Barnett in Star Trek. That same year, he wrote, directed, and appeared as Madea in I Can Do Bad All By Myself, which co-starred Taraji P. Henson.

Box-Office Hits: Precious, Gone Girl, and More

Also in 2009, Perry teamed with Lee Daniels and Oprah to produce Precious, a drama adapted from the novel Push by Sapphire. Daniels directed the Oscar-nominated film, which starred Gabourey Sidibe. In 2010, Perry directed a film version of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, based on Ntozake Shange’s 1975 play.

Perry continued to make successful movies in the Madea franchise, including Madea’s Big Happy Family (2011), Madea’s Witness Protection (2012), A Madea Christmas (2014), the animated Madea’s Tough Love (2015), and Boo! A Madea Halloween (2016). Although he announced he was retiring the wisecracking grandma, Perry delivered two additional movies in the series, 2019’s A Madea Family Funeral and 2022’s A Madea Homecoming. Another installment, Madea’s Destination Wedding, is scheduled for release on Netflix in July 2025.

Perry’s other credits as an actor include the title role of the crime drama Alex Cross (2012), the romantic dramas Good Deeds (2012) and Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor (2013), and the comedy drama The Single Moms Club (2014). Additionally, he enjoyed a supporting role in the acclaimed thriller Gone Girl (2014), starring Ben Affleck, and played Baxter Stockman in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016). Come 2018, he appeared as one-time Secretary of State Colin Powell in Vice about George W. Bush’s vice president, Dick Cheney. Perry also returned to directing that year, helming the psychological thriller Acrimony and the Tiffany Haddish romantic comedy Nobody’s Fool.

The entertainment mogul has launched several TV shows since House of Payne, including Love Thy Neighbor, the popular OWN series The Haves and the Have Nots, For Better or Worse, If Loving You Is Wrong, and The Paynes. In 2019, he debuted two new shows on BET: the comedy-drama Sistas and the political soap opera The Oval. He later received the Governors Award at the 72^nd Emmy Awards in recognition of his TV work.

Tyler Perry Studios

In October 2019, Perry announced the grand opening of the $250 million Tyler Perry Studios on the site of a former 330-acre Confederate military base in Atlanta. The studio had already been in use while under construction. Movies such as Black Panther and the TV show The Walking Dead were filmed there.

New Movies

More recently, Perry has directed the movies A Jazzman’s Blues (2022), Mea Culpa (2024), Divorce in the Black (2024), and Oscar nominee The Six Triple Eight (2024). Actor Kerry Washington led the cast of the historical drama about the all-female 6888th Army Battalion that served during World War II. In 2025, Perry has had two movies release on streaming platforms: Duplicity on Amazon Prime Video and Straw on Netflix.

Netflix has become a reliable partner of Perry’s. The director and producer signed a multi-year deal with the streaming giant in 2024 to make faith-based movies. The first is expected to be R&B, a modern retelling of the Biblical love story about Ruth and Boaz.

Don’t Make a Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings by Tyler Perry

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Adding to his already dynamic career, Perry wrote the 2006 best-selling book, Don’t Make a Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings: Madea’s Uninhibited Commentaries on Love and Life. The book went on to win two Quill Awards: Book of the Year and Best in Humor. His second book, Higher Is Waiting (2017), touched more on spiritual issues and the importance of family.

Gelila Bekele and Tyler Perry were in a relationship for 13 years before they broke up in 2020.

Perry has never married. He dated model, activist, and filmmaker Gelila Bekele from 2007 through 2020. Bekele was co-director of the 2023 documentary Maxine’s Baby: The Tyler Perry Story about the media mogul’s life. The project was filmed over the course of a decade.

The former couple share one child: Their son, Aman, was born in November 2014. His godmothers are Oprah Winfrey and the late actor Cicely Tyson. Despite the famous connections in his son’s life, Perry has said he’s determined to give Aman a normal life out of the spotlight. “I want him to know what it’s like to have his own name and his own life and not have the pressure of trying to live up to whatever or whoever your father was,” Perry explained. The director and actor doesn’t share photos of Aman to protect his privacy.

Perry is a famous godparent himself, serving as the godfather to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s daughter, Princess Lilibet of Sussex.

Perry is one of the richest actors in the world. Although Celebrity Net Worth estimates his total fortune around $850 million as of June 2025, Forbes included Perry on its most recent list of the world’s billionaires and gives him a valuation of $1.4 billion. Much of Perry’s wealth stems from the success of the Madea franchise, which has grossed more than $660 million.

• If I see more of us own what we produce, and I’m in any way responsible for that, then I feel I would’ve done something.
• Had I focused on the criticism, I wouldn’t own this studio today. I could not have gotten here without Madea.
• My first 10 movies were all about [my mother], subconsciously, wanting her to know that she’s worthy, wanting Black women to know, “You’re worthy, you’re special, you’re powerful, you’re amazing.”
  

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