Actor Derek Dixon is pressing legal charges against executive producer Tyler Perry, with whom he worked on his BET series, The Oval. According to the latest reports, the actor has filed a lawsuit against the filmmaker, and is suing him for s*xu*l ass*ult and h*rrassment.
As he recently detailed during his interview with ABC News on Tuesday, September 9, Perry allegedly exploited him while working together by grabbing his private parts and sending him texts with s*xu*l connotations. Dixon claims that he put up with it all until leaving the show in September 2024, fearing professional retaliation if he didn’t.
In the interview, Dixon talked about the accusations that he has filed in the lawsuit against Perry. Here’s a detailed look at the same, including everything the actor has said about the producer’s allegedly torturing him.
Derek Dixon Accuses Tyler Perry of S*xu*lly Ass*ult*ng Him
An incident that Derek Dixon detailed in the lawsuit included him sharing that Tyler Perry allegedly “pulled my underwear down and grabbed my a**.” This happened when the two were walking back to the guest area where the actor had stayed before, when they spotted a health monitor scale on the way.
Looking at it, Dixon curiously asked Perry about what it was. To this, Perry allegedly said, “Well, you have to be in your underwear to measure.” As he continued to share,
[Perry] reached down and pulled my underwear down and grabbed my a*s, and I tried to stop him and pull back my underwear up.
When Dixon tried to protest against it, Perry simply “grabbed” his arms and asked him to “just go with it.” Per the actor’s claims:
He kind of grabbed my arms and said, ‘No, no, no, it’s okay. Just go with it.’ And I said, ‘Stop, I don’t want to be naked. I don’t want this.’ And he said, ‘I’m not going to hurt you.’
Dixon continued to share his feelings in that alleged peculiar moment, confessing that he couldn’t understand what to do or how to get himself out of that situation. He said,
Unless someone’s been through something where they have their control over their body taken away, you don’t really understand the kind of feelings that you get in that moment. Every thought came into my head: to run, to fight, to freeze. I didn’t know what to do.
Eventually, per his revelations, the evening ended with Dixon locking himself in the guest house bathroom. He also shared that Perry called him up to apologize to him the following day. And yet, that was hardly the end of the alleged nightmarish turn of events for the actor.
Derek Dixon Details a Similar Incident From When He Stayed at Tyler Perry’s Guest House
The evening prior to that incident of Tyler Perry allegedly touching him b*tt-n*ked, the actor claimed that the billionaire producer allegedly “climbed into bed” with him as well, while he was staying at Perry’s guest house, and “started rubbing my leg.”
While it had Dixon “jump out of bed,” he accused Perry of saying to him, “Turn around so I can look at you,” before commenting on how he looked. “And he got up and left,” Dixon continued.
I thought after that instance, it was pretty clear that I was not interested in that type of a relationship. … It’s okay that people try to make a move or shoot their shot, but if they get rejected, I think that they should stop. I thought it would stop after that. and it didn’t.
Unfortunately for Derek Dixon, though, the traumatic events he detailed in the interview didn’t just end there, as he also had to deal with the numerous texts with s*xu*l connotations that Perry sent to him, per his claims.
Derek Dixon Feared Professional Retaliation for Ignoring Tyler Perry’s Messages
In the lawsuit, Derek Dixon also got candid about the unprofessional multiple text messages that Tyler Perry allegedly sent him. In the second season of the show The Oval, there’s an episode where the actor’s character is shot multiple times. Turns out, that was a scripting decision that Dixon took as, “If I don’t make him happy, I could stay dead on the show.”
He detailed in the interview,
For me, that was his way of showing power over us and our careers. I was extremely anxious. The calls and texts were almost every day. This constant state of, ‘If I don’t answer, I will lose my job. I will be fired or k*lled off the show.’ It took a huge toll on my anxiety and depression.
In September 2024, though, Dixon himself ended up leaving the show, which started back in 2019 and continued this year with its sixth season. His lawsuit was filed after his departure, in June this year.
Derek Dixon Seeks $260 Million in Punitive Damages From Tyler Perry
Leaving the show has since had Derek Dixon filing a lawsuit against Tyler Perry, seeking $260 million in punitive damages. The actor defended this staggering amount by saying that a part of it was to help make up for the monetary losses he had suffered, and the remaining was to stop a billionaire “who won’t stop himself from doing this.”
Dixon candidly said in the interview,
Part of that number is my lost job — my lost income, the loss of the show. The other part of that is a deterrent of how to stop a billionaire who won’t stop himself from doing this. I hope you take accountability for what happened, and I hope this has taught you not to treat your employees this way. Never use someone’s dream to coerce them into a relationship. That’s not professional.
It’s worth noting that, in both the lawsuit as well as the interview, Dixon also mentioned that Perry agreed to produce a pilot that he wrote for a show called Losing It. Apparently, Perry still holds the rights to that.
Tyler Perry’s Lawyers Denied Derek Dixon’s Allegations, Calling the Lawsuit a “Shakedown”
While Derek Dixon is stepping forward as a force to be reckoned with, Tyler Perry himself has yet to address all these allegations. While his lawyers had no comment on the actor’s interview, they did take time to deny Dixon’s allegations soon after he filed the lawsuit, characterizing the suit as a “shakedown.”
Perry’s attorney, Matthew Boyd, wrote in a statement to the press after the lawsuit was filed, writing (via Variety),
This is an individual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam. But Tyler will not be shaken down, and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.
Currently, these are all the updates that have been made public, so far, about the lawsuit and Dixon’s allegations against Perry. It remains to be seen how this turn of events ends up for both the actor as well as the producer.
Do you have something to say about this story? Share with us in the comments below!
