Tyler Perry accuser speaks out for first time since sexual assault lawsuit
Actor Derek Dixon has spoken out about sexual harassment and assault he says he endured at the hands of media mogul Tyler Perry.
Dixon, who starred as Dale in Perry’s long-running political drama The Oval and its spinoff Ruthless, filed a $260m (£192m) lawsuit against Perry in June, all claims the star has denied.
The actor said the ordeal had been hard due to the shame that often comes with sexual assault. “Just trying to think what you could have done better and having to deal with the judgement of how you could’ve ended it better without being in that situation,” he said.
Dixon landed the role as Dale in The Oval in 2020 and appeared in 85 episodes between 2021 and 2025. According to his legal filing, Perry began sending him text messages of a sexual nature during this time.
“One of them says, ‘What's it going to take for you to have guiltless sex? Have y’all found that in therapy yet? I would hope that you would let someone hold and make love to you,’” Dixon told ABC News.
The lawsuit claims Perry told Dixon to stay in his guest house in January 2020 after they had drinks together. The writer then allegedly climbed into bed with Dixon and started rubbing his leg.
Dixon said Perry’s actions prompted him to jump out of bed. “I thought after that instance, it was pretty clear that I was not interested in that type of a relationship,” he said.
At the end of the second season of The Oval, Dixon’s character was shot four times in the chest. The actor said this made him realise, “if I don’t make him happy, I could stay dead on the show.”
After they finished filming the shooting scene, Dixon claims Perry asked him to his trailer to have drinks and asked him if he was attracted to him.
Dixon claims he called the mogul an “attractive man” in an attempt to de-escalate the situation but wasn’t interested, at which point he claims Perry pushed him against a wall and grabbed his buttocks.
“I remember leaving his trailer and calling my friend immediately and just feeling sick about it,” he said.
The actor also claims that when he visited Perry’s home in Atlanta in June 2021, Perry asked why he wasn’t having sex with anyone and told him to take off his clothes to use a weight monitor machine.
“He reached down and pulled my underwear down and grabbed my a** and I tried to stop him and pull back my underwear up and he grabbed my arms and said, ‘No, no, no, it's OK, just go with it’' I said, ‘Stop, I don't want to be naked,’” Dixon said, adding he then locked himself in the guesthouse bathroom.
The actor said he ceased communication with Perry in the spring of 2024 and decided to leave The Oval in September that year. Losing It, another series he was writing that Perry owns the rights to, was never developed beyond the pilot.
Perry’s lawyer Matthew Boyd told ABC News Dixons’s claims are “fabricated” and “a scam”.
The Independent has contacted Perry’s representatives for comment.
