Black film and TV mogul Tyler Perry has just been slapped with a $260 million lawsuit for alleged intimacy misconduct.
The complaint was filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court by Derek Dixon, a white actor who appeared in 85 episodes of Perry’s BET series The Oval.
Dixon alleges in the suit that Perry had promised him career advancements while subjecting him to harassment, assault, and battery.
Highlights
- Tyler Perry is being sued over alleged inappropriate misconduct towards a former colleague
- Derek Dixon is bringing the lawsuit against the Madea star for harassment, assault and battery
- Perry denies the charges, saying the lawsuit is a setup and scam
Trigger warning: This article contains details of violence that may be distressing to some
Lawsuit alleges Tyler Perry subjected Derek Dixon to “escalating s**ual harassment”
Image credits: Slaven Vlasic / Getty Images
Image credits: Kevin Winter / Getty Images
The lawsuit explains in detail what Dixon says are unwanted s**ual advances. Dixon claims he first met the ‘Madea’ star while working as a staff member at one of Perry’s parties in 2019.
The claim accuses Perry of offering Dixon: “career advancement and creative opportunities, such as producing his pilot and casting him in his show, only to subject him to escalating s**ual harassment, assault and battery, and professional retaliation when Mr. Dixon did not reciprocate Mr. Perry’s unwanted advances.”
In text messages and documents filed in court, Perry and Dixon had casual conversations about intimacy. There are several screen shots of their texts included in the lawsuit.
“I haven’t been touched in months”: Text between Perry and Dixon seem to talk about identity
Image credits: derek__dixon / Instagram
In one text exchange Perry asks Dixon: “What’s it going to take for you to have guiltless s*x?” but it's not clear whether Perry is asking Dixon to have “guiltless s*x” with him, or someone else.
The text from Perry goes on to say “Have y’all found that in therapy yet?” insinuating that Perry was talking about Dixon and a third person.
In another text Dixon seems to describe the dynamics of another relationship between him and someone else, saying: “Right, and we just had a heaping dose of it, and now it's back to nothing. It’s really weird.”
To which Perry replies: “I don’t have any contact. What are you talking about? I haven’t been touched in months.”
Perry’s texts to Dixon have undertones of s**ual identity
Image credits: theneighborhoodtalk / Instagram
In another exchange Perry says to Dixon: “I would hope that you would let someone hold you and make love to you. You are missing the best years of your life my friend. Trust me. I hope you get past that block in your mind soon.”
“Well, it’s not that person. But I want that too,” Dixon replies.
In other messages Perry and Dixon seem to be talking about how intimacy favors can get you places in Hollywood. “How strong is your ‘no’ ? Is it stronger? You got to have a strong no,” Perry asks Dixon.
“I’ll only say yes if it gets me an Oscar,” Dixon replied.
“Well the only one who could have gotten that for you though s*x is in prison. So just stick to the no,” Perry told Dixon.
Image credits: theneighborhoodtalk / Instagram
The suit discusses several instances of inappropriate behavior from Perry towards Dixon. In one case, Dixon alleges, he stayed overnight at Perry’s because he was too inebriated to drive.
Dixon says while sleeping in the guest room, Perry crawled into bed with him and began stroking his legs.
In another instance, the lawsuit alleges that Perry “forcibly pulled off Mr. Dixon’s clothing, groped his buttocks, and attempted to force himself on Dixon.”
The court documents say Perry later apologized for that incident and promised Dixon he would produce Dixon’s TV pilot.
According to the International Business Times, Derek Dixon is originally from Raleigh, North Carolina. The publication says he went to Marymount Manhattan College and has appeared in both The Oval and Ruthless, two of Perry's television series.
"Beyond acting, he's a recognized playwright, having co-won the 2016 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award. His work includes productions of The Lion in Winter, Romeo and Juliet, and The Boys In The Band. He has also written several plays, such as Homewrecker and Green Light, and joined the Working Title Playwrights group in 2015," says the International Business Times.
Image credits: derek__dixon / Instagram
Perry’s attorney, Matthew Boyd, denied the allegations, calling them a shakedown.
“This is an individual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam,” Boyd said in a statement. “But Tyler will not be shaken down, and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”
According to TMZ, who first reported the lawsuit, Dixon filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2024 before leaving The Oval because of the harassment charges.
Image credits: Netflix / YouTube
As an actor, performer, producer and filmmaker, Perry’s work has been met with acclaim and criticism.
Some critics have said the characters in Perry’s work are stereotypical and represent a setback for the Black community. Writer and cultural critic Jamilah Lemieux wrote an open letter to Perry back in 2009 calling out the characters portrayed in his films and TV shows.
The letter to Perry, published by All Things Considered at National Public Radio, said Perry’s shows: “Are marked by old stereotypes of buffoonish, emasculated black men and crass, sassy black women.”
Lemieux said that she would like to support his work, but “I can't let advertisers and networks think that these stereotypes are acceptable.”
The letter touched on an earlier statement from filmmaker Spike Lee, who famously said that Perry’s films and shows deal with “coonery and buffoonery.”
During a 2009 interview with blackenterprise.com, a media and business platform, Lee said the topic of Perry perpetuating Black stereotypes “is a complex subject because each artist should be allowed to pursue their artistic endeavors. But I still think a lot of stuff that is on today is coonery buffoonery. And I know it’s making a lot of money, breaking records—but we can do better. That’s just my opinion."
Image credits: derek__dixon / Instagram
In response, Perry accused Lee of running his mouth. “Spike can go straight to h**l! You can print that. I am sick of him talking about me, I am sick of him saying, ‘This is a coon; this is a buffoon.’ I am sick of him talking about black people going to see movies,” Perry said at the time.
But that was more than a decade ago. In the past few years, the two have reconciled. When Perry opened his Atlanta film studio in September of 2022, he named one of the sound studios after Lee.
At the time, Perry was quoted at the TriBeca Film Festival as saying: "Spike Lee, who was very vocal about my work, yes. As I said, God bless all y'all; y'all do well. But I honored him because I don't care what he said, how can I ignore his contributions ... Had he not done what he did, I wouldn't be here."
Image credits: tylerperry / Instagram
Netizens react to $260 million lawsuit brought against Tyler Perry by one of his former colleagues
