Tyler Perry sued by “The Oval” actor over alleged intercourse assault, harassment; Perry’s lawyer denies claims

Tyler Perry has been accused in a civil lawsuit of repeatedly sexually assaulting and harassing an actor on “The Oval,” a TV drama that Perry created, based on a brand new lawsuit. The swimsuit, filed Friday in Los Angeles Superior Courtroom by the actor Derek Dixon, alleges Perry used his affect within the leisure trade to forestall Dixon from talking out till now. 

Matthew Boyd, an lawyer representing Perry, denied the allegations in a press release obtained by CBS Information on Tuesday.

“That is a person who bought near Tyler Perry for what now seems to be nothing greater than organising a rip-off,” the assertion mentioned. “However Tyler is not going to be shaken down and we’re assured these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”

Dixon appeared on 85 episodes of “The Oval,” which has had a six-season run on the community BET. The actor’s most up-to-date appearances got here through the newest season of the sequence earlier this yr, based on IMDB. His lawsuit seeks at the very least $260 million in damages.

“Mr. Perry took his success and energy and used his appreciable affect within the leisure trade to create a coercive, sexually exploitative dynamic with Mr. Dixon—initially promising him profession development and inventive alternatives, comparable to producing his pilot and casting him in his present, solely to topic him to escalating sexual harassment, assault and battery, {and professional} retaliation when Mr. Dixon didn’t reciprocate Mr. Perry’s undesirable advances,” the lawsuit alleges. 

It alleges the habits occurred throughout Dixon’s time as a sequence common on “The Oval,” when Perry “held direct management over his employment, compensation, and inventive alternatives.”

The lawsuit, first reported Tuesday by TMZ, says that Perry first seen Dixon in 2019 when Dixon was a part of the occasion employees at a Perry social gathering, and later provided an audition.

Dixon would first seem in a small function on the Perry sequence “Ruthless” earlier than getting the larger function on the political drama “The Oval.”

Perry quickly started sending undesirable sexual textual content messages to Dixon, based on the lawsuit, which incorporates alleged screenshots of a number of of them.

“What’s it going to take so that you can have guiltless intercourse?” one of many messages says.

The lawsuit claims Perry provided Dixon an more and more outstanding function on the present as his sexual advances grew to become extra aggressive.

Within the lawsuit, the actor says he tried to stay pleasant whereas sustaining boundaries.

“Dixon did his greatest to tiptoe round Mr. Perry’s sexual aggression whereas maintaining on Mr. Perry’s good aspect,” the lawsuit says. “Mr. Perry made it clear to Dixon that if Dixon ignored Perry or failed to interact with the sexual innuendoes, Dixon’s character would ‘die.'”

The lawsuit alleges Perry finally sexually assaulted Dixon on “a number of events,” together with an occasion the place he “forcibly pulled off Mr. Dixon’s clothes, groped his buttocks, and tried to drive himself on Dixon.”

Dixon clearly advised Perry “No,” however was initially ignored till he was in a position to de-escalate the scenario and alter the topic, based on the lawsuit.

The next day, the swimsuit claims, Perry apologized, and advised Dixon he would work with Dixon on a TV pilot Dixon was in search of to provide.

Dixon says he later obtained a increase that the lawsuit suggests was a part of an try to hold him quiet.

He mentioned the concern of his character dying stored him quiet as meant.

Perry additionally produced and purchased the rights to the pilot, known as “Shedding It,” however the lawsuit alleges Perry had no intention of promoting the present and was utilizing it just for leverage over Dixon.

The lawsuit describes a number of different alleged assaults. In a type of alleged cases, the swimsuit claims Perry climbed into mattress with Dixon, uninvited, and groped him whereas Dixon was staying in a visitor room at Perry’s home.

It additionally alleges that Dixon finally moved from Atlanta, residence to Perry’s manufacturing studio, to Los Angeles to place distance between the 2 of them, however “Mr. Perry continued to sexually harass Mr. Dixon.”

Dixon in 2024 filed a criticism with the Equal Employment Alternative Fee, based on the lawsuit. The swimsuit alleges that Dixon stop the present when its producer’s didn’t take motion to research his accusations, even after he had filed that criticism with the EEOC.

CBS Information and The Related Press don’t usually title individuals who say they’ve been sexually abused except they arrive ahead publicly as Dixon has.

“The Oval” is one in all many tv sequence govt produced by, written by and directed by the 55-year-old Perry, who first grew to become often known as creator and star of the “Madea” movies and has since constructed a significant manufacturing empire in TV and films. As an actor he has additionally appeared within the movies “Gone Lady” and “Do not Look Up.”