Tyler Perry is being sued for $260 million over allegations of sexual assault and harassment by an actor who appeared on his BET drama The Oval.
Us Weekly obtained a lawsuit filed by Derek Dixon against Perry, 55, and Tyler Perry Studios in Los Angeles on Friday, June 13. (TMZ was first to break the news on Tuesday, June 17.)
Dixon is suing the filmmaker for quid pro quo sexual harassment, sexual battery, sexual assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress and retaliation, among other things. Perry denied the allegations against him through his attorney on Tuesday.
“Mr. Perry took his success and power and used his considerable influence in the entertainment industry to create 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 when Mr. Dixon did not reciprocate Mr. Perry’s unwanted advances,” the lawsuit states.
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“This is an individual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam,” Perry’s attorney Matthew Boyd said in a statement to ABC News on Tuesday. “But Tyler will not be shaken down and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”
Dixon alleges in the suit that he met Perry while working on an opening party for Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta in 2019. He said that he and Perry exchanged phone numbers, and the Straw director later cast him on the show Ruthless.
It was then that Dixon claims that Perry began sending him “strange and untowardly” messages. Dixon alleges Perry sexually assaulted him at Perry’s home in Douglasville County, Georgia, in January 2020, and subsequently offered him a regular role on The Oval, the long-running BET drama set inside the White House.
Dixon claims that the fate of his character, Dale, and his continued employment hinged on his acquiescing to Perry’s alleged advances.
“Mr. Perry made it clear to Dixon that if Dixon ignored Perry or failed to engage with the sexual innuendos, Dixon’s character would ‘die’ in the next season,” the lawsuit states. “Indeed, Dixon’s character ‘Dale’ was shot four times in the chest at the end of his first season on The Oval, and Perry always held this over Mr. Dixon’s head, implying that ‘Dale’ would survive if Dixon kept Perry ‘happy.’”
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Dixon alleges two further incidents of sexual assault, one involving Perry “aggressively groping Dixon’s buttocks in a sexual motion” during an October 2020 cast trip to the Bahamas. He claims he was assaulted again at Perry’s house in June 2021.
After experiencing a decline in his health, including “severe depression,” the actor says he moved to Los Angeles in or around January 2023 to “put some distance” between himself and Perry, per the suit.
In the legal filing, Dixon also alleges that Perry promised to produce a television show created by Dixon and continued to make such promises even after he had moved to Los Angeles. In 2024, Dixon says he realized Perry was only doing so to prevent him “from exposing the dark side of Tyler Perry,” the suit states.
“At this point, Mr. Dixon has no comment. We believe the complaint speaks for itself,” Dixon’s attorneys told ABC News on Tuesday.
Us Weekly has reached out to Perry’s representatives and BET for comment.
