Tyler Perry accusers' lawyer alleges billionaire abused 'many other' aspiring male actors

A lawyer representing two men who accuse Tyler Perry of sexual abuse has alleged in a court filing that the billionaire filmmaker assaulted "many other" people, an escalation in the litigation surrounding one of Hollywood's most powerful figures.

The claim appears in a declaration from attorney Jonathan Delshad, who represents both men suing Perry. Delshad made it while arguing that Lionsgate, the studio behind the Madea films, should stay in the case rather than be dismissed.

Perry has denied all of the allegations against him and has not been charged with any crime. His lawyers have called the lawsuits a coordinated attempt to extract money.

The two suits are the backdrop to the new filing. Derek Dixon, an actor who appeared on Perry's BET drama The Oval, sued in June 2025 for $260 million, accusing Perry of using his position to create what the complaint called a coercive, sexually exploitative dynamic during the show. Mario Rodriguez, a model who acted in Boo! A Madea Halloween, followed in December 2025 with a $77 million claim alleging multiple assaults at Perry's Los Angeles home between 2016 and 2019.

Delshad's argument turns on what Lionsgate should have known. He contends the studio can be held liable even if the alleged incidents happened away from its productions, because Perry, in his telling, had a documented history that an employer should have caught.

"Mr. Perry had been sexually assaulting other people in the past, which there is plenty of evidence that he has," Delshad wrote in the declaration.

He went further on the studio's responsibility. Lionsgate should have known of Perry's alleged misconduct and his propensity for harassing employees, Delshad argued, and as an employer had a duty to ensure that someone like that was not, in his words, let loose on people like his clients "and the many other people who he has sexually harassed and assaulted."

The filing does not name those other people or detail the evidence Delshad says exists. The assertion is a lawyer's allegation in an active civil case, unproven and untested in court.

Perry's side has pushed back hard. His attorney characterised Rodriguez's suit as resting on a decade's worth of falsehoods, misrepresentations and outlandish claims with no basis in fact or law. A separate lawyer for Perry, addressing the Dixon case, said his client would not be shaken down and expressed confidence that what he called fabricated harassment claims would fail.

The defence has also pointed to the men's own words. Perry's lawyers have released text messages they say show friendly, grateful exchanges between the filmmaker and his accusers, including messages in which Rodriguez thanked Perry and, more recently, asked him for financial help. Rodriguez's side has responded that cordial messages do not disprove abuse, arguing that people often maintain relationships with those who hold power over their careers.

Money has changed hands between the parties, a point both sides read differently. According to the litigation, Perry gave Rodriguez about $10,000 over the years. Delshad has argued that undercuts the idea of Perry as simply a generous mentor, questioning why an influential producer would keep supporting an actor from a minor role. Perry's camp frames the payments as evidence of goodwill, not guilt.

The cases have taken a winding procedural path. Dixon's suit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, moved to federal court in California, then shifted to federal court in Georgia, Perry's home base, after a judge ruled in December that Dixon had not established California residence. Rodriguez's case, which names Lionsgate as a codefendant, has proceeded separately. No trial dates have been confirmed in either matter.

Perry, 56, is one of the most successful figures in American entertainment and among the few Black moguls to own his studio outright. He built Tyler Perry Studios, a 330-acre lot on a former military base in Atlanta that employs hundreds of people, and Forbes estimates his fortune at about $1.4 billion, drawn from film, television and a library of work he controls.

His reach extends onto the continent Billionaires.Africa covers most closely. Perry has spoken often about his ancestral ties to Africa, took citizenship interest in the diaspora conversation, and his films command a large audience across Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa, where Madea is a household name and his rags-to-riches story is frequently held up as a template.

Whether Delshad can convert his allegation into named accusers and admissible evidence will determine how far these cases travel. Until then, the "many other" claim sits where it was filed, in a legal declaration, denied by Perry and awaiting the test of a courtroom.