OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
1:23 PM – Wednesday, June 18, 2025
Actor Derek Dixon has filed a $260 million lawsuit against Tyler Perry, alleging sexual harassment, assault, and career retaliation.
According to the complaint filed on Friday in Los Angeles—Dixon claims that Perry fostered “a coercive, sexually exploitative dynamic” during his time working on the filmmaker’s television series “The Oval” and “Ruthless,” in which Dixon portrayed the character Dale.
The complaint has formally accused Perry of “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 when Mr. Dixon did not reciprocate Mr. Perry’s unwanted advances.”
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Perry’s attorney, Matthew Boyd, reacted to Dixon’s lawsuit in a statement to PEOPLE.
“This is an individual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam,” he claimed. “But Tyler will not be shaken down and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail,” the statement continued.
Dixon alleges that, over the following months, Perry frequently sent him text messages—some containing “suggestive” advances—while also expressing a desire to help him professionally, including promises to secure employment and transform his life forever.
In November 2019, according to the complaint, Perry then offered Dixon a minor role on “Ruthless.”
The complaint also further alleges that in January 2020, Perry sexually assaulted Dixon at his residence. The following month, Perry then allegedly “offered Dixon a series regular role on ‘The Oval.'”
The actor claims that upon reviewing the script for his first season, he noticed that his character’s fate was ambiguously unresolved in the season finale.
“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 complaint alleged. “Indeed, Dixon’s character ‘Dale’ was shot four times in the chest at the end of his first season on ‘The Oval,’ and Perry always held this over Mr. Dixon’s head, implying that ‘Dale’ would survive if Dixon kept Perry ‘happy.'”
Dixon recounted that after the filming of a scene in which his character was shot, Perry invited him to his trailer, where he allegedly pinned Dixon against the wall and began “aggressively groping Dixon’s buttocks in a sexual motion.”
According to the complaint, the actor further alleged a similar incident occurred during a cast trip to the Bahamas in October 2020.
Legal documents also mention how in December 2020, Dixon allegedly sought medical attention, where a physician observed “severe symptoms of acute stress, insomnia, stomach issues, and dangerously low cortisol levels due to the sexual harassment and assault,” ultimately prescribing him Zoloft, an antidepressant.
Dixon claimed Perry called him back to his house in June 2021 to discuss Dixon’s pilot for the show “Losing It,” which Perry had showed an interest in producing. He noted that Perry sexually abused him once more during this meeting.
He emphasized that he “suffered from severe depression, anxiety, stomach pains, and nausea” and was soon diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after the alleged incidents.
Dixon remained a cast member on “The Oval” but departed during its final season—a decision he claims cost him nearly $400,000 in lost earnings.
According to the complaint, the actor is suing Perry on multiple grounds, including quid pro quo sexual harassment, sexual battery, sexual assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, retaliation, among other allegations. Dixon is seeking a jury trial and is pursuing $260 million in damages.
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