Tyler Perry

Info

Full Name: Tyler Perry
Date of birth: September 14, 1969 (57 years old)
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
Country: USA

Tyler Perry has been active for 17 years, participating in 33 movies that average a 4.6/10 score.

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Biography

In 1992, a young playwright put his entire savings of $12,000 into a show in Atlanta. Around thirty people turned up. That playwright was Tyler Perry, and he'd go on to own one of the biggest film studios in the United States and a place on the Forbes billionaires list, much of it thanks to a grandmother with a very sharp tongue called Madea.

He was born Emmitt Perry Jr. on 13 September 1969 in New Orleans, the son of Willie Maxine Perry and Emmitt Perry Sr., a carpenter who beat him. He's also spoken about being sexually abused by several adults as a child, and he attempted suicide as a teenager. At 16 he changed his first name to Tyler to distance himself from his father. He dropped out of high school and later earned his GED.

From sleeping in his car to packed theatres

The turning point came while watching Oprah Winfrey's talk show, where he heard that writing about your experiences could be therapeutic. He started keeping a diary, and it became his first play, 'I Know I've Been Changed', a story about child abuse and forgiveness. When it flopped, he spent periods living in his car while he kept rewriting it.

In 1998 the play finally sold out the House of Blues in Atlanta. From then on he toured constantly with plays that mixed comedy, drama and Christian themes. In one of them, 'I Can Do Bad All by Myself', he introduced Madea, a loud grandmother who doesn't take any nonsense, played by Perry himself in a wig and dress. His mother, who died in 2009, was one of the inspirations for the character.

Taking Madea to the big screen

His first film, 'Diary of a Mad Black Woman' (2005), which he wrote and starred in, made more than $50 million in the US. He made his directing debut a year later with 'Madea's Family Reunion' (2006) and kept going with 'Why Did I Get Married?' (2007), 'Madea Goes to Jail' (2009), featuring Viola Davis, and 'I Can Do Bad All By Myself' (2009).

What set him apart wasn't just that he wrote, directed, produced and acted. He paid for his own projects and kept ownership of what he made, and by 2011 Forbes was calling him the best paid man in entertainment.

Madea kept coming back in 'Madea's Big Happy Family' (2011), 'Madea's Witness Protection' (2012), 'A Madea Christmas' (2013), 'Boo! A Madea Halloween' (2016) and 'Boo 2! A Madea Halloween' (2017). In 2019 Perry said goodbye to her with 'A Madea Family Funeral' and a farewell tour.

It didn't last. Madea returned on Netflix in 'A Madea Homecoming' (2022) and 'Madea's Destination Wedding' (2025), alongside regulars Cassi Davis and David Mann. In 2026 Perry handed the lead to Madea's brother Joe, another of his characters, in 'Tyler Perry's Joe's College Road Trip'.

Away from Madea he directed dramas and thrillers such as 'Good Deeds' (2012), 'Tyler Perry's Temptation' (2013), 'The Single Moms Club' (2014), 'Acrimony' (2018), starring Taraji P. Henson, and 'Nobody's Fool' (2018).

Producer and actor for hire

With Oprah Winfrey he came on board as an executive producer of 'Precious' (2009), Lee Daniels' drama starring Gabourey Sidibe, which won two Oscars, including one for Mo'Nique. A year later he adapted Ntozake Shange's play as 'For Colored Girls' (2010), with Janet Jackson, Kerry Washington and Thandiwe Newton.

Other directors have been happy to cast him too. He played Admiral Barnett in 'Star Trek' (2009) for J.J. Abrams, took the title role in 'Alex Cross' (2012) and was Tanner Bolt, Ben Affleck's lawyer, in David Fincher's 'Gone Girl' (2014).

Adam McKay cast him as Colin Powell in 'Vice' (2018) and as a TV host in 'Don't Look Up' (2021). That same year he appeared in Taylor Sheridan's 'Those Who Wish Me Dead', and he's voiced characters in 'The Star' (2017) and 'Paw Patrol: The Movie' (2021).

A television empire and a studio of his own

On TV his first big hit was 'Tyler Perry's House of Payne', which launched on TBS in 2006. In 2012 he signed a deal with Oprah Winfrey's OWN network, where 'The Haves and the Have Nots' set ratings records between 2013 and 2021. 'Sistas' and 'The Oval' followed on BET in 2019, and he owned a 25% stake in the BET+ streaming service until Paramount bought him out in March 2026.

In 2015 he bought 330 acres of the former Fort McPherson army base in Atlanta, and in October 2019 he opened Tyler Perry Studios there. Its twelve soundstages are named after Black stars who inspired him, including Whoopi Goldberg and Cicely Tyson. The following year Forbes confirmed he was a billionaire.

In February 2024 he put an $800 million expansion on hold after seeing what OpenAI's video tool Sora could do, warning that jobs would be lost. In July 2026 he announced a deal to turn one of his stages into a virtual production space built around LED screens.

Netflix is now his main outlet. His first series for the streamer, 'Beauty in Black', arrived in 2024, the same year as 'The Six Triple Eight', about the only Black women's battalion sent to Europe in the Second World War, with Kerry Washington, Oprah Winfrey and Susan Sarandon.

In 2025 he reunited with Taraji P. Henson for 'Straw', which pulled in Netflix's biggest weekly audience for a film that year up to that point. He also produced 'Ruth & Boaz', with Serayah and Phylicia Rashad. In 2026 he teamed up with Jason Blum to produce the Peacock thriller 'Strung', directed by Malcolm D. Lee and starring Chloe Bailey, and in September he brought back one of his oldest franchises with 'Why Did I Get Married Again?'.

Private life, awards and lawsuits

Perry was in a relationship with model and activist Gelila Bekele from 2007. Their son, Aman, was born at the end of 2014, and the couple split in 2020, though they still raise him together. He's also godfather to Lilibet, the daughter of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, which the couple confirmed in their Netflix docuseries.

He received the Governors Award at the Emmys in 2020, and in April 2021 Viola Davis presented him with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Oscars, where he used his speech to ask people to "refuse hate".

Two lawsuits have followed him since 2025. In June that year Derek Dixon, an actor on 'The Oval', sued him for $260 million alleging sexual harassment and assault, and in December Mario Rodriguez, who appeared in 'Boo! A Madea Halloween', sought $77 million over similar claims. Perry denies the allegations, and his lawyers have called both suits attempts to get money out of him. Next up is 'Doing Life', due on Netflix on 2 October 2026.