Long-brewing sexual misconduct allegations against Tyler Perry are getting the national TV news treatment Tuesday, Sept. 9, with ABC News airing an interview with actor Derek Dixon, who has accused the entertainment mogul of sexual harassment in a lawsuit filed in June.
Earlier Tuesday, ABC News released a clip of Dixon’s interview, in which the actor appears to describe the first time that the Atlanta-based film and TV actor and producer allegedly harassed him. According to Dixon’s lawsuit, the incident happened in Perry’s home in January 2020, after they both consumed alcohol and Perry, 55, insisted that the younger actor stay the night.
“I got into bed and then I noticed that he climbed into bed with me as well and started rubbing my leg,” Dixon told ABC News anchor Linsey Davis. “I jumped up out of bed.”
Dixon appeared in two series produced by Perry, including 85 episodes of Perry’s White House-set BET series, “The Oval” from 2021 to 2025. The clips released by ABC News suggest that the actor will cover some of the same ground described in his $260 million lawsuit and in a July interview he did with The Hollywood Reporter. Among other things, Dixon alleges that the “Madea” creator has engaged in a pattern of exploiting male actors in his productions and of using his power in the entertainment industry to harass employees.
In 2023, Christian Keyes, an actor who worked for Perry prior to Dixon’s employment, went on Instagram live detailing his abusive experience with an anonymous “black Hollywood billionaire,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. Dixon believes the billionaire is Perry, but Keyes’ manager didn’t respond to request for comment from The Hollywood Reporter.
Perry’s attorney emphatically denied Dixon’s allegations, according to a statement reported by The Grio, a Black news, lifestyle and opinion site.
“This is an individual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam,” attorney Matthew Boyd said. “But Tyler will not be shaken down and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”
But Dixon is expected to tell ABC News that he stands by his accusations. “Unless someone has been through something where they have their control over their bodies taken away you don’t really understand the kind of feelings that you get in that moment,” he said in the interview clip.
In his email to The Hollywood Reporter, Dixon also said: “Everyone deserves to go to work and do their job without their boss trying to have sex with them. My goal is to help ensure that the next generation of actors and creatives don’t have to choose between their dreams and their dignity.”
According to Dixon’s lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Perry repeatedly invited him to his home, touched him without consent, and sent unwanted sexual messages. Dixon also said he filed a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in June 2024 before ultimately leaving “The Oval,” saying he could no longer withstand the alleged harassment.
In email responses to The Hollywood Reporter, Dixon said he first met 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.
Dixon, who had performed and written for Atlanta theater productions, said that Perry singled him out in the crowd of event staff. He asked him if he was an actor.
“I said, ‘Yes, but not really right now,’” Dixon told The Hollywood Reporter. “And he said, ‘Yes you are. I can tell.’” At the end of the event, Perry and Dixon exchanged numbers, and Perry began texting Dixon the next day, asking, “So who are you? What’s the dream? What do you want to do?”
Perry offered Dixon the opportunity to audition for a small part in his series “Ruthless,” a spin-off of “The Oval.” Perry ultimately gave Dixon the part, saying that the role could get bigger.
At that point, Dixon, who is an out gay man, “did not know that Perry was interested in men or that he was looking for a sexual relationship,” his lawsuit said. About a year later, in December 2020, Perry announced on Instagram that he had broken up with his longtime girlfriend, Gelila Bekele, with whom he shares a now 10-year-old son, had broken up.
“Regardless 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’re having sex and physically assaulting them,” Dixon told The Hollywood Reporter.
During Dixon’s first alleged encounter with Perry, he said the producer backed off when he told him he wasn’t interested in sex. However, Perry began to call or text Dixon every day, including when he told Dixon that he wanted to expand his small role in “Ruthless” into a larger, recurring role on “The Oval.”
When production of “The Oval” was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Dixon said Perry encouraged him to write a script for a comedy pilot. Dixon said Perry complimented him on the script and even offered to produce a pilot, though he was vague on details, as he continued to send text messages, complimenting him on his body or telling him he needed to “let someone hold you and make love to you.”
There was another meeting at Perry’s home in 2021, during which Dixon said the producer again drank too much and allegedly groped Dixon during a good-night hug, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Dixon said he contacted an attorney to discuss his options, while also confiding in a co-worker. The attorney told him he would need to quit “The Oval” before he could file a complaint while his co-worker reminded him that he’d be giving up professional acting job.
“All those years of trying to be an actor would just go up in smoke,” Dixon told The Hollywood Reporter. “You can’t just go out and easily get another series regular role on a TV show.” Dixon said he felt too paralyzed to take action against Perry: “I was too afraid to come forward. I knew it would be awful. And I was right.”
