Tyler Perry’s Sexual Assault Accuser Claims Director Groped Him, Snuck Into Bed Uninvited

Weeks after filing a $260M sexual assault lawsuit against film producer Tyler Perry, actor Derek Dixon has publicly addressed his claims, insisting, “I couldn’t just let him get away with this,” to The Hollywood Reporter.

“Everyone deserves to go to work and do their job without their boss trying to have sex with them,” he continued. “My goal is to help ensure that the next generation of actors and creatives don’t have to choose between their dreams and their dignity.”

Dixon appeared on 85 episodes of Perry’s BET series The Oval, which aired between 2021 and 2025. This came after first meeting Perry in Atlanta in September of 2019, when Perry singled him out in the crowd as he was working as an event coordinator for Legendary Events, which organized the opening party for Tyler Perry Studios.

Acting sporadically at the time, when asked by Perry if he was an actor, “I said, ‘Yes, but not really right now,’” Dixon told THR. “And he said, ‘Yes you are. I can tell.’” Perry and Dixon later exchanged numbers, and Perry began texting Dixon the next day, asking, “So who are you? What’s the dream? What do you want to do?” He was soon hired for a small role on Perry’s Ruthless.

In January of 2020, Dixon says he was invited to Perry’s Georgia home. After both men had a few drinks, Perry allegedly told Dixon that he was too inebriated to drive home, and instructed him to stay in Perry’s guesthouse. Later that evening, he claims Perry crept into his bed uninvited.

 “[Perry] climbed into bed with me and began rubbing my thigh. I immediately jumped out of the bed and said, ‘I’m not that sexual’ and stood up until he left the room. I thought that my reaction made it clear that night that I was not interested.”

Dixon claims that, moving forward, Perry would text him every day, with many of the alleged messages being leaked to the public shortly after the lawsuit was filed. Dixon claims that he initially ignored Perry, resulting in the director texting him, “Derek. Why don’t you text me more?”

Days later, Dixon claims Perry offered to expand his small role on Ruthless to be a recurring character on The Oval. This, however, resulted in Perry increasing his calls, which were always personal in nature, never business.

When The Oval went on hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic, Perry encouraged Dixon to write a comedy pilot, which he did, with Perry loving the end result. “He called me and told me that it was hilarious, and he loved it and wanted to shoot the pilot for it,” Dixon says. “I couldn’t believe he actually liked it, much less wanted to shoot the pilot for it. It was one of the best things to ever happen to me at the time.”

After rejecting Perry in the guesthouse, Dixon assumed the filmmaker accepted his disinterest. Perry would also, oftentimes, act like a standard boss, which gave Dixon a “false sense of security,” he says. This led him to ignore the “warning signs.” These signs included Perry texting about Dixon’s “thick” body and asking why he twists his hips when he walks. In one alleged text, Perry told Dixon he needed to “let someone hold you and make love to you.”

Dixon insists that the texts got more severe over time, with Perry becoming angry when he didn’t respond. Alleged messages included Perry texting, “Don’t you dare ignore me. I deserve better. I deserve attention all the time,” and “What’s it going to take for you to have guiltless sex?”

“I’m not going to speak for him on how he identifies sexually,” says Dixon. “Regardless of his sexual orientation or gender, he should not be speaking to any of his employees whether they be men or women, gay, straight or bisexual about their sexual preferences, how often they’re having sex and physically assaulting them.”

In June of 2021, Dixon claims he went to Perry’s home to discuss his comedy pilot, Losing It, when history repeated itself. Both men got drunk and Perry insisted Dixon stay in his guesthouse.

 “He told me to give him a goodnight hug and as I did, he abruptly and forcefully pulled down my underwear and groped my bare ass,” Dixon says via the complaint. “When I tried to pull my underwear back up, he grabbed my wrists to keep me from putting them back on. I couldn’t believe what was happening.”

“I told him ‘No,’ ‘Stop,’ and ‘I don’t want this,’” Dixon detailed. “But he wasn’t stopping. He just told me to relax and let it happen and that he wasn’t going to hurt me.”

Dixon claims he then told Perry that he was starving, which led the director to switch gears and order pizza. They shared the pizza in Perry’s living room, then Dixon went back to the guesthouse and locked himself in the bathroom until morning.

Matthew Boyd, a lawyer for Perry, called Dixon an “individual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam.”

“Tyler will not be shaken down and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail,” Boyd added. Read more at THR.