Actor Derek Dixon says the method of bringing his latest bombshell lawsuit for sexual harassment and assault towards Atlanta leisure mogul Tyler Perry has been “terrifying.” However in his first interview since submitting the $260 million declare towards Perry in Los Angeles Superior Courtroom on June 13, he says he felt compelled to talk out as a result of, “I couldn’t simply let him get away with this.”
“Everybody deserves to go to work and do their job with out their boss making an attempt to have intercourse with them,” Dixon says. “My objective is to assist make sure that the subsequent technology of actors and creatives don’t have to decide on between their desires and their dignity.”
Dixon, an actor in his late 30s who appeared in 85 episodes of Perry’s BET sequence The Oval that aired between 2021 and 2025, alleges within the lawsuit that Perry made a number of undesirable sexual advances towards him, together with one during which the producer pinned him towards a wall and groped him and one other during which Perry snuck into his mattress. Dixon has accused Perry of participating in a sample of exploiting male actors in his productions and utilizing his energy within the leisure business to harass staff.
In an announcement, Matthew Boyd, a lawyer for the 55-year-old mogul, referred to as Dixon an “particular person who received near Tyler Perry for what now seems to be nothing greater than organising a rip-off.” “Tyler won’t be shaken down and we’re assured these fabricated claims of harassment will fail,” Boyd mentioned.
Dixon, who answered The Hollywood Reporter’s questions by e mail, described first assembly Perry in Atlanta in September of 2019 when he was working as an occasion coordinator for a corporation, Legendary Occasions, that was organizing the opening occasion for Tyler Perry Studios. On the time, Dixon, who was sporadically appearing and writing in theater in Atlanta, says he knew Perry solely because the creator of the Madea motion pictures. Dixon says that Perry singled him out within the crowd of occasion employees and requested him to get on stage so he might examine the lighting after which requested Dixon if he was an actor. “I mentioned, ‘Sure, however not likely proper now,’” Dixon says. “And he mentioned, ‘Sure you’re. I can inform.’” On the finish of the occasion, Perry and Dixon exchanged numbers, and Perry started texting Dixon the subsequent day, asking, “So who’re you? What’s the dream? What do you need to do?”
Perry provided Dixon the chance to audition for the a part of a personality named Dale in his sequence Ruthless, a by-product of the White Home-set drama The Oval created below Perry’s general cope with Viacom/CBS. Perry finally forged Dixon within the half, telling him it was a small function that might get lots larger.
At that time, Dixon, who’s an out homosexual man, “didn’t know that Perry was desirous about males or that he was searching for a sexual relationship,” Dixon’s grievance says. A few 12 months 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 damaged up.
“I’m not going to talk for him on how he identifies sexually,” says Dixon. “No matter his sexual orientation or gender, he shouldn’t be chatting with any of his staff whether or not they be males or ladies, homosexual, straight or bisexual about their sexual preferences, how usually they’re having intercourse and bodily assaulting them.”
Dixon grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina and determined he wished to be an actor after showing in his first play in his freshman 12 months of highschool. He studied appearing at Marymount Manhattan School and the T. Schreiber Studio in New York, carried out in performs in Atlanta, and received a Georgia playwriting award. Previous to working on the occasions firm, he largely made his residing as a waiter or bartender whereas making an attempt to construct his appearing profession.
In January of 2020, as Dixon outlines in his grievance, Perry invited him to his residence in Douglasville County, Georgia. Each males drank alcohol, and Perry informed Dixon he was too inebriated to drive residence and may keep within the visitor home. After Dixon went to mattress within the visitor home, he says, “[Perry] climbed into mattress with me and started rubbing my thigh. I instantly jumped out of the mattress and mentioned, ‘I’m not that sexual’ and stood up till he left the room. I believed that my response made it clear that night time that I used to be not .”
After that encounter, Perry referred to as or texted Dixon each day, Dixon says, and Dixon ignored him. “Derek. Why don’t you textual content me extra?” reads one textual content included in Dixon’s grievance. After a couple of days, Perry texted saying he wished to develop Dixon’s small function of Dale on Ruthless to be a recurring character on The Oval. It was the sort of profession alternative Dixon had been ready for.
Dixon learn that his character could be shot 4 occasions within the chest on the finish of the season and assumed he could be killed off. When he requested Perry about that storyline on a cellphone name, Dixon claims, “He mentioned that if I did a superb job, I’d most likely survive.” On this similar name, Dixon says, Perry additionally informed him that “no one provides him something.” “He provides and offers, no one ever provides again,” Dixon mentioned. “I keep in mind feeling my abdomen drop when he mentioned this. I knew that I couldn’t piss him off or my character might simply simply keep lifeless.”
After he delivered the excellent news about Dale, Perry’s calls and texts elevated exponentially, Dixon alleges within the lawsuit. “It was all the time private and virtually by no means about enterprise,” Dixon says. “He would say ‘ship pics’ of what I used to be doing or ask to see a photograph shoot that I simply did.” If Dixon didn’t reply instantly, he says, Perry would get irritated. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, manufacturing on The Oval was delayed, and Perry inspired Dixon to make use of the time to write down a comedy pilot. Dixon did and shared the script. “He referred to as me and informed me that it was hilarious, and he beloved it and wished to shoot the pilot for it,” Dixon says. “I couldn’t imagine he truly preferred it, a lot much less wished to shoot the pilot for it. It was probably the greatest issues to ever occur to me on the time.”
The small print and dates of when this pilot was going to occur stayed murky however Dixon was thrilled and grateful. He thought that Perry understood, after their visitor home encounter, that there was not going to be a sexual relationship between the 2 of them. “There have been occasions once I was round him and nothing would occur,” Dixon says. “So I believed he received the image, and that created a false sense of safety.” Dixon believes that his pleasure about his profession — and worry of Perry’s energy — led him to disregard sure warning indicators. “I now notice I let my gratefulness for what he’d finished for me cloud my self-respect,” Dixon says. Dixon says as a result of he had by no means labored in a company atmosphere, he didn’t totally clock the skilled inappropriateness of the textual content messages Perry started to ship. Texts from Perry included in Dixon’s grievance present the leisure mogul commenting on Dixon’s “thick” physique, asking “Why do you twist your hips while you stroll?” and noting that Dixon “preferred being choked” after capturing a choking scene on the present. In a single textual content, Perry informed Dixon he wanted to “let somebody maintain you and make like to you.”
At some point on set, Dixon says, Perry requested him to return to his trailer for a drink. “I knew I needed to,” Dixon says. “All of us have been residing at Tyler Perry Studios, working for Tyler Perry — who was the producer, author, and director — and I understood that you just do what Tyler Perry says, and also you go the place he calls for. I felt like for those who have been invited and also you cared in any respect about your profession and staying on the present, you couldn’t say no.” Perry had his assistant deliver them margaritas within the trailer, Dixon says. He claims in his grievance that Perry started asking uncomfortable questions, together with whether or not Dixon was interested in him. Dixon tells THR he continued to deflect Perry’s curiosity, telling him that he wasn’t “that sexual,” that he wasn’t “searching for something.” When he left, they hugged and Perry pushed him towards the wall and grabbed his buttocks, Dixon says. “After he would do issues like that, he would say issues like, ‘We have to simply be enterprise. We have to simply be skilled,’ and I’d assume, ‘Nice. Sure.’ Each time I believed it might cease.”
The texting continued, nevertheless, with Perry usually sending messages whereas drunk and seeming to get offended when Dixon didn’t reply. “Derek,” he mentioned in a single textual content that seems within the grievance. “Don’t you dare ignore me. I deserve higher. I deserve consideration on a regular basis.” “What’s it going to take so that you can have guiltless intercourse?” reads one other textual content. “Have you ever discovered that but in remedy?” Dixon says he began having insomnia and abdomen points, and his physician prescribed him Zoloft, an antidepressant. After weeks of unreciprocated sexual innuendos, Perry lashed out at Dixon on set, the grievance alleges, asking if he wanted to “punch [Dixon] within the abdomen,” for Dixon to ship the efficiency he wished.
In June of 2021, in keeping with Dixon’s grievance, Perry invited Dixon to his home, ostensibly to debate Dixon’s pilot, Dropping It. “I used to be frightened however I knew I needed to go,” Dixon says. “I believed if he tried something once more, I might deal with it and de-escalate it like I often did.” As an alternative, Dixon says, he and Perry received drunk and Perry informed Dixon to sleep within the visitor home once more. “He informed me to provide him a goodnight hug and as I did, he abruptly and forcefully pulled down my underwear and groped my naked ass,” Dixon says of 1 essentially the most damning allegations in his grievance. “After I tried to drag my underwear again up, he grabbed my wrists to maintain me from placing them again on. I couldn’t imagine what was taking place.”
Dixon believed that he was about to be raped. “I informed him ‘No,’ ‘Cease,’ and ‘I don’t need this,’” Dixon says, detailing the incident described within the lawsuit. “However he wasn’t stopping. He simply informed me to calm down and let it occur and that he wasn’t going to harm me.” Perry’s property, which has a guard and gate, is situated “in the course of nowhere,” Dixon says. “An Uber can’t drive to the visitor home.” To defuse the scenario, Dixon says, he informed Perry he couldn’t do something sexual as a result of he was hungry, which despatched Perry off to get a pizza. They ate the pizza again in the lounge, then Dixon returned to the visitor home, locked himself within the lavatory and fell asleep on the ground.
Within the following days, Dixon says he contacted a lawyer, not the one representing him now, Jonathan Delshad, however one other, who informed him he’d have to give up The Oval if he was going to file a grievance. “All these years of making an attempt to be an actor would simply go up in smoke,” Dixon mentioned. “This isn’t a standard job. You possibly can’t simply exit and simply get one other sequence common function on a TV present.” Dixon informed a co-worker what occurred, they usually reminded him what he’d be giving up if he complained. Dixon felt paralyzed. “I used to be too afraid to return ahead,” he says. “I knew it might be terrible. And I used to be proper.”
Over the subsequent a number of months, Dixon says he prevented Perry, declining an invite for a yacht journey. Somebody from Perry’s manufacturing firm reached out and mentioned they wished to shoot the pilot quickly, and Perry’s attorneys referred to as and informed Dixon he was getting a elevate however to not inform his different castmates as a result of he was the one one. Dixon determined to remain quiet, hoping the pilot could be successful and he might discover work elsewhere within the leisure business. Perry shot Dixon’s pilot in March of 2022. What Dixon didn’t know on the time, he alleges within the grievance, was that Perry’s contract with Viacom prohibited him from buying the present for 2 years (Perry declined to touch upon the deal). “I imagine he was making an attempt to dangle my desires in entrance of me for so long as he might to stop me from speaking,” Dixon says. In January of 2023, after ending one other season of The Oval, Dixon moved to Santa Monica, hoping to place bodily distance between himself and Perry and ready for Perry to promote the pilot.
In December of 2023, Christian Keyes, one other actor who labored for Perry previous to Dixon’s employment, went on Instagram reside detailing his abusive expertise with an nameless “black Hollywood billionaire,” which Dixon believes to be a reference to Perry. Keyes’ supervisor has not returned a request for remark.
In June of 2024, Dixon filed a sexual harassment grievance with the Equal Employment Alternative Fee and give up his job engaged on the final season of The Oval, for which he was below contract to make near $400,000. The EEOC grievance is at the moment pending. “I used to be an worker, and he was my boss,” Dixon says, of what motivated him to file the grievance. “The truth that I’m an actor doesn’t make me any much less an worker. For a very long time, I satisfied myself that it was a part of the business, or that by some means I needed to settle for it to maintain working. However ultimately, I couldn’t keep silent anymore.”
Within the weeks since his lawsuit grew to become public, Dixon says he has acquired a mixture of responses, from on-line threats and harassment to messages of assist to tales of different individuals who say they’ve had related experiences with Perry. “For this reason folks, particularly males, don’t come ahead,” Dixon says, of the harassment.
Requested if he tried to achieve a personal settlement with Perry previous to submitting his lawsuit final month, Dixon says, “There are all the time makes an attempt to resolve conditions like this privately, however they by no means end in the kind of change mandatory to guard additional victims. On the finish of the day my absolute worry is that he’ll have the ability to proceed doing this with none main penalties.”
