An actor who worked on the Tyler Perry-created TV drama “The Oval” has filed a lawsuit alleging Perry leveraged his industry power to repeatedly sexually assault and harass him while keeping him quiet.
The lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by actor Derek Dixon, who appeared on 85 episodes of the BET series, seeks at least $260 million in damages.
“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, only to subject him to escalating sexual harassment, assault and battery, and professional retaliation,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit was filed Friday and first reported Tuesday by TMZ.
Perry’s attorney, Matthew Boyd, said its allegations are false.
“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 Tuesday. “But Tyler will not be shaken down, and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”
The lawsuit says that Perry first noticed Dixon in 2019 when Dixon was part of the event staff at a Perry party, and later offered an audition.
Dixon would first appear in a small role on the Perry series “Ruthless” before getting the bigger 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 of them.
“What’s it going to take for you to have guiltless sex?” one of the messages says.
The lawsuit says Perry offered Dixon an increasingly prominent role on the show as his sexual advances became more aggressive.
The actor says 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 says. “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 says 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 clearly told Perry “No,” but was initially ignored until he was able to de-escalate the situation and change the subject, according to the lawsuit.
The following day, Perry apologized, and told Dixon he would work with Dixon on a TV pilot Dixon was seeking to produce.
Dixon later received a raise that the lawsuit suggests was part of an attempt to keep him quiet.
He said the fear of his character dying kept him quiet as intended.
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.
The lawsuit describes several other assaults, including one where Dixon was staying in a guest room of Perry’s house when Perry climbed into bed with him uninvited and began groping him, the lawsuit alleges.
Dixon would eventually move from Atlanta, home to Perry’s production studio, to Los Angeles to put distance between the two of them.
Dixon in 2024 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.
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly as Dixon has.
“The Oval” is one of many television series executive produced by, written by and directed by the 55-year-old Perry, who first became known as creator and star of the “Madea” films and has since built a major production empire in TV and movies. As an actor he has also appeared in the films “Gone Girl” and “Don’t Look Up.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.