Tyler Perry is facing a $260 million lawsuit over allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault by a former actor on one of his BET shows. In court documents filed last week in Los Angeles, actor and screenwriter Derek Dixon accuses Perry of making repeated unwanted advances, attempting to cover up an alleged assault, and using promises of career advancement as leverage, reports NBC News. According to the 46-page complaint, Dixon claims Perry first offered him an acting job in 2019 and later invited him to his Georgia home, where Dixon says Perry groped him.
During the night that Dixon says he spent there, Perry got into bed with him and, per the suit, started "rubbing Dixon's body around his inner thigh in a highly sexual and suggestive manner," which Dixon says he was able to deflect, reports the New York Times. The complaint alleges that Perry continued to send explicit messages to Dixon afterward and pressured him for details about his sex life, especially after Dixon landed a role on Perry's show The Oval. "What's it going to take for you to have guiltless sex?" one of the alleged texts documented in the suit reads, per the AP.
Dixon claims his job security was linked to his personal relationship with Perry and that Perry instructed him not to discuss their conversations with others on the set. The lawsuit also describes two alleged incidents of groping in 2020 and another in 2021, with Perry reportedly offering a pay raise afterward and the option to develop a script Dixon had written. Dixon's suit claims Perry never intended to produce the project and used it for leverage.
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Eventually, Dixon turned down further work and filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The AP notes that Dixon appeared on 85 episodes of The Oval in total. Perry's attorney has denied the claims, calling the lawsuit "nothing more than setting up a scam," and expressed confidence that the case won't succeed. The legal status of Dixon's EEOC complaint isn't clear. Perry himself, meanwhile, hasn't yet commented on the allegations. (This content was created with the help of AI. Read our AI policy.)
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