An actor and screenwriter is suing Tyler Perry for US$260 million in a lawsuit alleging that the media mogul leveraged his industry power to repeatedly sexually assault and harass him while keeping him quiet.
Derek Dixon, who played the character Dale on Perry’s The Oval for 85 episodes, claims that Perry subjected him “to escalating sexual harassment, assault and battery, and professional retaliation when Mr. Dixon did not reciprocate Mr. Perry’s unwanted advances.”
The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on June 13, alleges that “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.”
Perry’s lawyer, Matthew Boyd, said the lawsuit’s allegations are false.
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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,” Boyd said in a statement on Tuesday. “But Tyler will not be shaken down, and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”
The lawsuit, viewed by the New York Times, said Perry first noticed Dixon in 2019 when he was part of the event staff at a party Perry was throwing and he offered Dixon an audition.
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Dixon would first appear in a small role on the Perry series Ruthless before getting a larger role on the political drama The Oval.
Perry soon began sending unwanted sexual text messages to Dixon, according to the lawsuit, which includes screenshots of several conversations between the two.
“What’s it going to take for you to have guiltless sex?” one of the messages read.
In one instance mentioned in the suit, Perry allegedly invited Dixon to his home in Douglasville, near Atlanta, in 2020, where the two had a few drinks and Dixon spent the night in a guest room.
Dixon alleges in the lawsuit that during the night, Perry got into bed with him and began “rubbing Dixon’s body around his inner thigh in a highly sexual and suggestive manner.” Dixon claims that he jumped out of the bed and told Perry that he “wasn’t that sexual.”
The lawsuit says Perry offered Dixon an increasingly prominent role on The Oval following the interaction and that’s when he claims his sexual advances became more aggressive.
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The actor said he tried 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 alleged. “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 also alleges that Perry eventually sexually assaulted Dixon on “multiple occasions,” including an instance where he “forcibly pulled off Mr. Dixon’s clothing, groped his buttocks, and attempted to force himself on Dixon.”
Dixon said he told Perry “no,” but was initially ignored until he was able to de-escalate the situation and change the subject, according to the suit.
The following day, Perry allegedly apologized and told Dixon he would work with him on a TV pilot Dixon was seeking to produce.
Dixon claims that he received a raise that he believes was part of an attempt to keep him quiet, according to the lawsuit.
He also said the fear of his character dying on The Oval kept him from speaking out about his allegations against Perry.
Perry also produced and bought the rights to the pilot, called Losing It, but the lawsuit alleges Perry had no intention of selling the show and was using it only for leverage over Dixon.
Dixon said he moved from Atlanta, where Perry’s production studio is located, to Los Angeles to put distance between the two of them.
In 2024, Dixon filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and when that didn’t result in any action from the show’s producers, he quit.
Dixon is requesting a jury trial and seeking damages of $260 million.
— With files from The Associated Press
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