Tyler Perry is being sued for sexual harassment and assault by an actor who starred in his TV series The Oval. The actor, Derek Dixon, is accusing Perry of “escalating sexual harassment, assault and battery, and professional retaliation when Mr. Dixon did not reciprocate Mr. Perry’s unwanted advances” in a lawsuit. Dixon is seeking $260 million in damages.
According to the lawsuit, obtained by the Cut, Dixon first met Perry in 2019, when he was working for an event company that had planned a party for him. Perry allegedly asked if Dixon was interested in acting, and the two exchanged numbers — soon after which, Dixon says, Perry began sending him texts of a sexual nature.
In 2020, the lawsuit states, Perry invited Dixon to his home in Douglasville, Georgia. After several drinks, Perry allegedly insisted Dixon was too drunk to drive and had him stay in his guest room, which Dixon says was actually a “ruse to allow Perry to assault Dixon.” Perry allegedly got in bed with Dixon and began “rubbing Dixon’s body around his inner thigh in a highly sexual and suggestive manner.” Dixon jumped out of bed and told Perry he “wasn’t that sexual” in order to stop him, according to the lawsuit.
The suit details several other incidents in which Perry allegedly groped Dixon. In one instance, in June 2021, Dixon said he went to Perry’s home — ostensibly to discuss a TV pilot Dixon was trying to get made that Perry had offered to work with him on. Perry allegedly asked him for a “‘good night’ hug,” at which point Perry “yanked Dixon’s underwear down” and “began to vigorously grab, grope, and play with Dixon’s buttocks in a sexual manner.”
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Dixon accused Perry of workplace retaliation in the lawsuit, claiming Perry would suggest that he was willing to kill off characters on his shows if he did not like an actor or how they were behaving. “Dixon understood that Perry was informing Dixon to be cautious about disappointing or upsetting Perry,” the lawsuit states, noting that this is why Dixon “continued to put up with Perry’s suggestive messages and sexual advances.”
A lawyer representing Perry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Cut. In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, his lawyer, Matthew Boyd, slammed Dixon as an “individual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam. Tyler will not be shaken down, and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail,” Boyd said.
