Tyler Perry Sued For $260M By ‘The Oval’ Actor Derek Dixon For Sexual Assault & Harassment

Like Love Haha Wow Sad Angry

Alessio AtriaJune 18, 2025, 2:17 pmHomepage Slider, News >

Tyler Perry has been hit with a $260 million sexual assault and harassment lawsuit by Derek Dixon, an actor who appeared on 85 episodes of his show, The Oval.

The assault and harassment lawsuit was filed by Dixon last Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court.

In the lawsuit, the actor alleged “a sustained pattern of workplace sexual harassment, assault, and retaliation perpetrated by Tyler Perry,” according to the filing. He also said that he is suing Perry for supposed quid pro quo sexual harassment, work environment harassment and more.

“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,” he said in the lawsuit.

Perry’s attorney, Matthew Boyd, claimed in a statement on June 17 that the actor’s accusations were false.

“This is an individual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam,” Boyd declared. “But Tyler will not be shaken down, and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”

The lawsuit stated that Perry first met Dixon in 2019, when he was part of the event staff at one of the filmmaker’s parties, and later offered him an audition.

At the end of the party, as mentioned in the lawsuit, they exchanged phone numbers, and the filmmaker began inquiring about Dixon’s goals.

The actor initially appeared in a small role on Perry’s show, Ruthless, before getting the bigger role on The Oval.

Perry started sending nonconsensual sexual text messages to Dixon, the lawsuit noted, which includes several screenshots of them.

In January 2020, the lawsuit asserts that the filmmaker invited Dixon to his home in Douglasville County, Georgia, where they drank alcoholic drinks and had a “friendly” conversation.

The lawsuit mentioned that Perry offered him an increasingly important role on The Oval as his sexual advances became more intense.

The actor stated that he attempted to remain friendly while maintaining boundaries.

“Dixon did his best to tiptoe around Mr. Perry’s sexual aggression while keeping on Mr. Perry’s good side,” the lawsuit mentions. “Mr. Perry made it clear to Dixon that if Dixon ignored Perry or failed to engage with the sexual innuendoes, Dixon’s character would ‘die.'”

The lawsuit noted that Perry soon sexually assaulted Dixon on “multiple occasions,” including an incident where he “forcibly pulled off Mr. Dixon’s clothing, groped his buttocks, and attempted to force himself on Dixon.”

The actor told Perry “no” but was first ignored until he could de-escalate the situation and change the subject, according to the lawsuit.

The next day, the filmmaker apologized and told Dixon that he would work with him on a TV pilot he was hoping to produce.

Dixon was later given a raise that the lawsuit indicates was part of an effort to keep him quiet.

The actor also said that the fear of his character dying kept him quiet as intended.

Perry produced and bought the rights to the pilot, Losing It.

However, the lawsuit states that he had no intention of selling the show and was only using it for leverage over Dixon.

Dixon would ultimately move from Atlanta, which is home to Perry’s production studio, to Los Angeles to place distance between the two of them.

Last year, the actor filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and when that did not lead to any action from the show’s producers, he quit.

Perry is facing other legal cases. In February 2024, actress Mo’Nique claimed that she had been “blackballed” from the entertainment industry by Perry and Oprah Winfrey. She said she has an audio tape of the filmmaker stating she is “difficult to work with.”