{"id":679429,"date":"2025-07-10T22:20:20","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T19:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/tyler-perry-accuser-derek-dixon-speaks\/"},"modified":"2025-07-10T22:20:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T19:20:20","slug":"tyler-perry-accuser-derek-dixon-speaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/tyler-perry-accuser-derek-dixon-speaks\/","title":{"rendered":"Tyler Perry Accuser Derek Dixon Speaks"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tActor Derek Dixon says the process of bringing his recent bombshell lawsuit for sexual harassment and assault against Atlanta entertainment mogul Tyler Perry has been \u201cterrifying.\u201d But in his first interview since filing the $260 million claim against Perry in Los Angeles Superior Court on June 13, he says he felt compelled to speak out because, \u201cI couldn\u2019t just let him get away with this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEveryone deserves to go to work and do their job without their boss trying to have sex with them,\u201d Dixon says. \u201cMy goal is to help ensure that the next generation of actors and creatives don\u2019t have to choose between their dreams and their dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDixon, an actor in his late 30s who app<\/a>eared in 85 episodes of Perry\u2019s BET series<\/a> The Oval<\/em> that aired between 2021 and 2025, alleges in the lawsuit that Perry made several unwanted sexual advances toward him, including one in which the producer pinned him against a wall and groped him and another in which Perry snuck into his bed. Dixon has accused Perry of engaging in a pattern of exploiting male actors in his productions and using his power in the entertainment industry to harass employees.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a statement, Matthew Boyd, a lawyer for the 55-year-old mogul, called Dixon an \u201cindividual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam.\u201d \u201cTyler will not be shaken down and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail,\u201d Boyd said.<\/p>\n

\n\tDixon, who answered The Hollywood Reporter\u2019<\/em>s questions by email, described first meeting Perry in Atlanta in September of 2019 when he was working as an event coordinator for a company, Legendary Events, that was organizing the opening party for Tyler Perry Studios. At the time, Dixon, who was sporadically acting and writing in theater in Atlanta, says he knew Perry only as the creator of the Madea movies. Dixon says that Perry singled him out in the crowd of event staff and asked him to get on stage so he could check the lighting and then asked Dixon if he was an actor. \u201cI said, \u2018Yes, but not really right now,’\u201d Dixon says. \u201cAnd he said, \u2018Yes you are. I can tell.’\u201d At the end of the event, Perry and Dixon exchanged numbers, and Perry began texting Dixon the next day, asking, \u201cSo who are you? What\u2019s the dream? What do you want to do?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPerry offered Dixon the opportunity to audition for the part of a character named Dale in his series Ruthless<\/em>, a spinoff of the White House-set drama The Oval<\/em> created under Perry\u2019s overall deal with Viacom\/CBS. Perry ultimately cast Dixon in the part, telling him it was a small role that could get a lot bigger.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt that point, Dixon, who is an out gay man, \u201cdid not know that Perry was interested in men or that he was looking for a sexual relationship,\u201d Dixon\u2019s complaint says. About a year after this, in December of 2020, Perry would announce on Instagram that he and his longtime girlfriend, Gelila Bekele, with whom he shares a now 10-year-old son, had broken up.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m not going to speak for him on how he identifies sexually,\u201d says Dixon. \u201cRegardless of his sexual orientation or gender, he should not be speaking to any of his employees whether they be men or women, gay, straight or bisexual about their sexual preferences, how often they\u2019re having sex and physically assaulting them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDixon grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina and decided he wanted to be an actor after appearing in his first play in his freshman year of high school. He studied acting at Marymount Manhattan College and The Terry Schreiber Studio in New York, performed in plays in Atlanta, and won a Georgia playwriting award. Prior to working at the events company, he mostly made his living as a waiter or bartender while trying to build his acting career.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn January of 2020, as Dixon outlines in his complaint, Perry invited him to his home in Douglasville County, Georgia. Both men drank alcohol, and Perry told Dixon he was too inebriated to drive home and should stay in the guest house. After Dixon went to bed in the guest house, he says, \u201c[Perry] climbed into bed with me and began rubbing my thigh. I immedia<\/a>tely jumped out of the bed and said, \u2018I\u2019m not that sexual\u2019 and stood up until he left the room. I thought that my reaction made it clear that night that I was not interested.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter that encounter, Perry called or texted Dixon every day, Dixon says, and Dixon ignored him. \u201cDerek. Why don\u2019t you text me more?\u201d reads one text included in Dixon\u2019s complaint. After a few days, Perry texted saying he wanted to expand Dixon\u2019s small role of Dale on Ruthless<\/em> to be a recurring character on The Oval<\/em>. It was the kind of career opportunity Dixon had been waiting for.<\/p>\n

\n\tDixon read that his character would be shot four times in the chest at the end of the season and assumed he would be killed off. When he asked Perry about that storyline on a phone call, Dixon claims, \u201cHe said that if I did a good job, I\u2019d probably survive.\u201d On this same call, Dixon says, Perry also told him that \u201cnobody gives him anything.\u201d \u201cHe gives and gives, nobody ever gives back,\u201d Dixon said. \u201cI remember feeling my stomach drop when he said this. I knew that I couldn\u2019t piss him off or my character could easily just stay dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter he delivered the good news<\/a> about Dale, Perry\u2019s calls and texts increased exponentially, Dixon alleges in the lawsuit. \u201cIt was always personal and almost never about business,\u201d Dixon says. \u201cHe would say \u2018send pics\u2019 of what I was doing or ask to see a photo shoot that I just did.\u201d If Dixon didn\u2019t answer immediately, he says, Perry would get annoyed. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, production on The Oval<\/em> was delayed, and Perry encouraged Dixon to use the time to write a comedy pilot. Dixon did and shared the script. \u201cHe called me and told me that it was hilarious, and he loved it and wanted to shoot the pilot for it,\u201d Dixon says. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe he actually liked it, much less wanted to shoot the pilot for it. It was one of the best things to ever happen to me at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe details and dates of when this pilot was going to happen stayed murky but Dixon was thrilled and grateful. He thought that Perry understood, after their guest house encounter, that there was not going to be a sexual relationship between the two of them. \u201cThere were times when I was around him and nothing would happen,\u201d Dixon says. \u201cSo I thought he got the picture, and that created a false sense of security.\u201d Dixon believes that his excitement about his career \u2014 and fear of Perry\u2019s power \u2014 led him to ignore certain warning signs. \u201cI now realize I let my gratefulness for what he\u2019d done for me cloud my self-respect,\u201d Dixon says. Dixon says because he had never worked in a corporate environment, he didn\u2019t fully clock the professional inappropriateness of the text messages Perry began to send. Texts from Perry included in Dixon\u2019s complaint show the entertainment mogul commenting on Dixon\u2019s \u201cthick\u201d body, asking \u201cWhy do you twist your hips when you walk?\u201d and noting that Dixon \u201cliked being choked\u201d after shooting a choking scene on the show. In one text, Perry told Dixon he needed to \u201clet someone hold you and make love to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOne day on set, Dixon says, Perry asked him to come to his trailer for a drink. \u201cI knew I had to,\u201d Dixon says. \u201cWe all were living at Tyler Perry Studios, working for Tyler Perry \u2014 who was the producer, writer, and director \u2014\u00a0and I understood that you do what Tyler Perry says, and you go where he demands. I felt like if you were invited and you cared at all about your career and staying on the show, you couldn\u2019t say no.\u201d Perry had his assistant bring them margaritas in the trailer, Dixon says. He claims in his complaint that Perry began asking uncomfortable questions, including whether Dixon was attracted to him. Dixon tells THR<\/em> he continued to deflect Perry\u2019s interest, telling him that he wasn\u2019t \u201cthat sexual,\u201d that he wasn\u2019t \u201clooking for anything.\u201d When he left, they hugged and Perry pushed him against the wall and grabbed his buttocks, Dixon says. \u201cAfter he would do things like that, he would say things like, \u2018We need to just be business. We need to just be professional,\u2019 and I would think, \u2018Great. Yes.\u2019 Every time I thought it would stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe texting continued, however, with Perry often sending messages while drunk and seeming to get angry when Dixon didn\u2019t answer. \u201cDerek,\u201d he said in one text that appears in the complaint. \u201cDon\u2019t you dare ignore me. I deserve better. I deserve attention all the time.\u201d \u201cWhat\u2019s it going to take for you to have guiltless sex?\u201d reads another text. \u201cHave you found that yet in therapy?\u201d Dixon says he started having insomnia and stomach issues, and his doctor prescribed him Zoloft, an antidepressant. After weeks of unreciprocated sexual innuendos, Perry lashed out at Dixon on set, the complaint alleges, asking if he needed to \u201cpunch [Dixon] in the stomach,\u201d for Dixon to deliver the performance he wanted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn June of 2021, according to Dixon\u2019s complaint, Perry invited Dixon to his house, ostensibly to discuss Dixon\u2019s pilot, Losing It<\/em>. \u201cI was worried but I knew I had to go,\u201d Dixon says. \u201cI thought if he tried anything again, I could handle it and de-escalate it like I usually did.\u201d Instead, Dixon says, he and Perry got drunk and Perry told Dixon to sleep in the guest house again. \u201cHe told me to give him a goodnight hug and as I did, he abruptly and forcefully pulled down my underwear and groped my bare ass,\u201d Dixon says of one the most damning allegations in his complaint. \u201cWhen I tried to pull my underwear back up, he grabbed my wrists to keep me from putting them back on. I couldn\u2019t believe what was happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDixon believed that he was about to be raped. \u201cI told him \u2018No,\u2019 \u2018Stop,\u2019 and \u2018I don\u2019t want this,’\u201d Dixon says, detailing the incident described in the lawsuit. \u201cBut he wasn\u2019t stopping. He just told me to relax and let it happen and that he wasn\u2019t going to hurt me.\u201d Perry\u2019s estate, which has a guard and gate, is located \u201cin the middle of nowhere,\u201d Dixon says. \u201cAn Uber cannot drive to the guest house.\u201d To defuse the situation, Dixon says, he told Perry he couldn\u2019t do anything sexual because he was hungry, which sent Perry off to get a pizza. They ate the pizza back in the living room, then Dixon returned to the guest house, locked himself in the bathroom and fell asleep on the floor.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the following days, Dixon says he contacted a lawyer, not the one representing him now, Jonathan Delshad, but another, who told him he\u2019d need to quit The Oval<\/em> if he was going to file a complaint. \u201cAll those years of trying to be an actor would just go up in smoke,\u201d Dixon said. \u201cThis is not a normal job. You can\u2019t just go out and easily get another series regular role on a TV show.\u201d Dixon told a co-worker what happened, and they reminded him what he\u2019d be giving up if he complained. Dixon felt paralyzed. \u201cI was too afraid to come forward,\u201d he says. \u201cI knew it would be awful. And I was right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOver the next several months, Dixon says he avoided Perry, declining an invitation for a yacht trip<\/a>. Someone from Perry\u2019s production company reached out and said they wanted to shoot the pilot soon, and Perry\u2019s attorneys called and told Dixon he was getting a raise but not to tell his other castmates because he was the only one. Dixon decided to stay quiet, hoping the pilot would be a success and he could find work elsewhere in the entertainment industry. Perry shot Dixon\u2019s pilot in March of 2022. What Dixon didn\u2019t know at the time, he alleges in the complaint, was that Perry\u2019s contract with Viacom prohibited him from shopping the show for two years (Perry declined to comment on the deal). \u201cI believe he was trying to dangle my dreams in front of me for as long as he could to prevent me from talking,\u201d Dixon says. In January of 2023, after finishing another season of The Oval<\/em>, Dixon moved to Santa Monica, hoping to put physical distance between himself and Perry and waiting for Perry to sell the pilot.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn December of 2023, Christian Keyes, another actor who worked for Perry prior to Dixon\u2019s employment, went on Instagram live detailing his abusive experience with an anonymous \u201cblack Hollywood billionaire,\u201d which Dixon believes to be a reference to Perry. Keyes\u2019 manager has not returned a request for comment.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn June of 2024, Dixon filed a sexual harassment complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and quit his job working on the last season of The Oval<\/em>, for which he was under contract to make close to $400,000. The EEOC complaint is currently pending. \u201cI was an employee, and he was my boss,\u201d Dixon says, of what motivated him to file the complaint. \u201cThe fact that I\u2019m an actor doesn\u2019t make me any less an employee. For a long time, I convinced myself that it was part of the industry, or that somehow I had to accept it to keep working. But eventually, I couldn\u2019t stay silent anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the weeks since his lawsuit became public, Dixon says he has received a mix of responses, from online threats and harassment to messages of support to stories of other people who say they have had similar experiences with Perry. \u201cThis is why people, especially men, don\u2019t come forward,\u201d Dixon says, of the harassment.<\/p>\n

\n\tAsked if he attempted to reach a private settlement with Perry prior to filing his lawsuit last month, Dixon says, \u201cThere are always attempts to resolve situations like this privately, but they never result in the type of change necessary to protect further victims. At the end of the day my absolute fear is that he will be able to continue doing this without any major consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Actor Derek Dixon says the process of bringing his recent bombshell lawsuit for sexual harassment and assault against Atlanta entertainment mogul Tyler Perry has been \u201cterrifying.\u201d But in his first interview since filing the $260 million claim against Perry in Los Angeles Superior Court on June 13, he says he felt compelled to speak out…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":679430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Derek-Dixon-and-Tyler-Perry-Split-Getty-H-2025.jpg?w=1296&h=730&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[72567,63297],"class_list":["post-679429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-metoo","tag-tyler-perry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}