US filmmaker and media mogul Tyler Perry is facing a $260 million lawsuit after actor Derek Dixon, best known for his role as Dale on Perry’s BET drama The Oval, accused him of sexual harassment, assault, and professional retaliation.
Dixon, who also appeared in Perry’s series Ruthless, went public with the allegations in an interview with ABC News on September 9, 2025. He claimed Perry fostered a “coercive, sexually exploitative dynamic” that blurred professional boundaries and left him living in fear for his career.
According to Dixon, Perry repeatedly made sexual advances, including pulling down his underwear and grabbing his buttocks at the producer’s Atlanta home.
“I was under constant stress, scared I’d lose my job or be killed off the show if I didn’t comply,” Dixon said.
The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles in June 2025, also alleges that Perry threatened Dixon’s role on The Oval if he did not respond to his advances. “Mr. Perry made it clear to Dixon that if Dixon ignored Perry or failed to engage with the sexual innuendos, Dixon’s character would ‘die’ in the next season,” the court documents state.
Dixon further accused Perry of promising to produce a pilot he had written but later failing to deliver, allegedly using his control over the project to maintain leverage.
Explaining the size of the damages sought, Dixon said the lawsuit represents both personal and professional losses as well as an attempt to deter further abuse.
“Part of that number is my lost job, my lost income, the loss of a show. The other part of that is a deterrent for how do you stop a billionaire who won’t stop themselves from doing this,” he explained.
Dixon said he ultimately chose to leave The Oval in 2024 and declined further offers from Perry after filing a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in January that year.
Perry’s attorney, Matthew Boyd, dismissed the allegations as baseless, describing them as part of “an elaborate scam.”
“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. “But Tyler will not be shaken down and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”
While Dixon is the only publicly identified accuser so far, the case has drawn renewed attention to workplace harassment and power dynamics in Hollywood.
Despite acknowledging the personal risks of speaking out, Dixon said he chose to go public “to protect future generations of actors and creatives.”
“Never exploit someone’s aspirations to coerce them into a relationship. That’s unprofessional,” he told ABC News.
Perry, best known for films such as Acrimony and his long-running Madea comedy series, has denied all allegations.
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