Tyler Perry’s $260 Million Sexual Harassment Lawsuit: The Allegations

Actor Derek Dixon’s $260 million sexual harassment lawsuit against Tyler Perry, filed in June 2025, accuses the filmmaker of a years-long pattern of sexual assault, quid pro quo harassment, and career retaliation during Dixon’s time on the BET drama The Oval. Perry denies the allegations and has called the case a “scam.” A second accuser, Mario Rodriguez, filed a separate suit in December 2025. Both cases are active and in early stages as of mid-2026.

Who Sued Tyler Perry and Why

Derek Dixon played Dale, a recurring character, on Tyler Perry’s political drama The Oval, appearing in roughly 85 to 86 episodes across five seasons between 2021 and 2025. He also appeared in the spinoff Ruthless.¹ Dixon says he first met Perry in September 2019 at the grand opening of Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, and that Perry cast him in Ruthless two months later. Dixon left The Oval in September 2024.²

Dixon filed his complaint on June 13, 2025, in the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, case number 25STCV17235.³ The 46-page filing names Perry personally along with two Georgia-based limited liability companies, TPS Production Services LLC and And Action LLC, alleging the three operated as an “integrated enterprise” under Perry’s centralized control.⁴ Lionsgate is not a defendant in the Dixon case.

The complaint sets out ten causes of action under California law, including violations of the Fair Employment and Housing Act, the Bane Act, and the Ralph Act, and seeks $260 million in punitive damages.³ Dixon first filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in January 2025 before going to court. Dixon has said the dollar figure was meant to cover lost income and to act as a “deterrent” for a billionaire.⁵

The Specific Allegations

Dixon alleges what the complaint calls a “sustained pattern” of quid pro quo sexual harassment beginning in early 2020. During a stay at Perry’s guest house in January 2020, Dixon says Perry got into his bed, rubbed his leg, and told him to “turn around so I can look at you.”⁵ A later incident in Perry’s trailer on The Oval set allegedly involved Perry pushing Dixon against a wall and groping him after Dixon said he was not interested in a sexual relationship.²

A June 2021 incident at Perry’s Atlanta home is described in the complaint as an assault: Perry allegedly led Dixon to a bathroom under the pretext of using a weight monitor, pulled down Dixon’s underwear, grabbed his buttocks, and held Dixon’s arms when he tried to resist, saying “No, no, no, it’s OK, just go with it.”⁵ The complaint also alleges Perry grabbed Dixon by the throat during a meeting at his home and sent sexually explicit text messages over a period of years.⁴

The Career Retaliation Claims

Perry writes, directs, and produces The Oval, and Dixon’s complaint frames that total control as the leverage behind the harassment. Perry allegedly threatened to “kill off” Dixon’s character if Dixon did not keep him “happy,” telling him at one point, “I love killing a mother fucker in a show that no one expects.”³ Dixon points to a Season 2 script in which Dale was shot four times in the chest as proof the threat was real, and says he lived in a “constant state of, ‘If I don’t answer, I will lose my job.'”²

The complaint also targets a comedy pilot Dixon wrote, Losing It. Perry’s production company filmed the pilot in March 2022 after Perry allegedly told Dixon the script was “hilarious,” but Dixon claims Perry never intended to sell or air it and instead “dangled” the project to keep him compliant. Dixon says he was unaware Perry’s existing Viacom contract prohibited shopping the show elsewhere for two years. The pilot has not aired.⁶

Evidence Cited in the Complaint

The filing reproduces what it describes as sexually explicit text messages from Perry, including solicitations, jealous questions about Dixon’s personal life, and demands for attention at odd hours.⁴ Dixon says he called a friend, Justin Bryant, immediately after the alleged trailer assault and began keeping notes and preserving old messages to protect himself. The complaint also points to a pay raise communicated by Perry’s attorney shortly after an alleged assault as circumstantial evidence of the quid pro quo dynamic.

Perry’s Denial and Defense

Perry denies every allegation. His attorney Matthew Boyd called the lawsuit a “scam,” saying: “This is an individual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam… we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”⁷ Attorney Alex Spiro, also on the defense, has called the litigation a “shakedown” driven by money.⁸

Perry’s team has publicly released text messages they say show friendly, grateful exchanges between Perry and his accusers, arguing those messages contradict the abuse claims. Spiro has also attacked the credibility of the accusers’ shared attorney, Jonathan Delshad, framing the two lawsuits as a coordinated effort.⁸

Where the Case Stands Now

The case is no longer in the California state court where Dixon filed it. On September 24, 2025, Perry’s team filed a Notice of Removal to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.⁹ Dixon moved to send the case back to state court in October 2025, arguing the defendants had not properly established diversity jurisdiction and that one defendant had not properly consented to removal. The federal court denied the remand motions.¹⁰

On December 12, 2025, the case was transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, where it now sits as case number 1:25-cv-07102.⁹ The defendants have filed multiple motions to dismiss. Delshad has pushed back on any suggestion the case has been thrown out, stating: “Dixon’s claims are alive and well, and none of them have failed; they were just moved to a different court.”¹¹

The venue fight matters. Perry’s team argues Georgia, where the studio is headquartered, is the right forum. Dixon’s side prefers California, whose labor protections, including the “Silenced No More Act,” are more favorable to plaintiffs in workplace harassment cases. Discovery may also be difficult: Tyler Perry Studios is a private entity with no independent corporate board, which complicates plaintiff access to internal records such as HR complaints and security footage from the 330-acre lot. Dixon has said in his filing that he did not report the alleged misconduct internally because he was unaware the studio had a human resources department.¹² Both cases are expected to approach trial in mid-2026, though no firm trial dates have been publicly confirmed.

The Separate Rodriguez Lawsuit

A second lawsuit against Perry is often conflated with Dixon’s but is a different case. On December 25, 2025, Mario Rodriguez, who had a minor role as “Frat Guy #10” in the 2016 film Boo! A Madea Halloween, sued Perry in Los Angeles Superior Court seeking at least $77 million for sexual assault, sexual battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.¹³

Rodriguez alleges Perry made unwanted sexual advances at Perry’s Los Angeles home on multiple occasions between 2015 and 2019, including a 2018 incident in which Perry allegedly “reached into Mr. Rodriguez’s underwear and grabbed his penis” while making “sexual moaning noises.” Rodriguez says Perry gave him $5,000 after that encounter and again after a 2019 incident, and continued to contact him through 2024, offering financial security and acting roles in exchange for a sexual relationship.¹⁴¹⁵

Unlike Dixon’s case, the Rodriguez complaint names Lionsgate, the distributor of Boo! A Madea Halloween, as a defendant, arguing the company “should have known of Perry’s misconduct” and failed to enforce morality clauses or other safeguards.¹⁴ Lionsgate has not publicly commented. Rodriguez is represented by Delshad, the same attorney handling Dixon’s case, and says he decided to come forward after learning of Dixon’s allegations.¹⁶

Spiro dismissed the Rodriguez suit in the same terms, calling it “nothing but a 77 million dollar money grab scam.”⁸ Perry’s defense has highlighted Thanksgiving 2024 messages in which Rodriguez thanked Perry, writing “I love you” and “I appreciate you to the moon.” Rodriguez’s side responds that polite messages do not disprove abuse, arguing survivors often maintain cordial relationships with people who hold power over their careers.¹⁷ The Rodriguez case was listed as waiting on service of process as of its last public update.¹⁸

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