Filmmaker Tyler Perry accused of sexual assault again

2 months ago 20

By Francesca Regalado and Mark Walker

December 28, 2025 — 9.32am

A second actor has sued filmmaker and media mogul Tyler Perry, accusing him of sexual assault and seeking $US77 million ($115 million) in damages, according to a complaint filed Thursday in the Los Angeles Superior Court.

In the lawsuit, which also names the production company Lionsgate as a defendant, the actor, Mario Rodriguez, said he was subjected to multiple instances of sexual assault at Perry’s Los Angeles home.

Tyler Perry in June, the month he was first accused of sexual assault.

Rodriguez had a small role in the 2016 comedy Boo! A Madea Halloween, a movie that Perry directed and starred in. Rodriguez told Perry that he had never acted before auditioning to get that part, according to the lawsuit.

According to the complaint, Rodriguez was approached by a trainer at a Los Angeles Equinox gym in 2015 about meeting with Perry about a possible acting role as a “very good-looking college student” in a new movie that later became Boo! A Madea Halloween.

In the years that followed, Rodriguez said Perry subjected him to several unwanted sexual advances.

Among the instances, the complaint details two that took place between 2018 and 2019 in which Rodriguez said Perry apologised for unwanted sexual advances and stuffed $US5000 in his pocket on both occasions before he left.

This is the second such lawsuit filed against Perry this year.

In June, actor Derek Dixon, who appeared in Perry’s television series The Oval, sued him for $US260 million.

Dixon claimed that Perry subjected him to “escalating sexual harassment, assault and battery, and professional retaliation when Dixon did not reciprocate Perry’s unwanted advances,” according to the lawsuit.

The lawyer representing Perry in that case, Matthew Boyd, said the lawsuit was without merit, calling it a “scam”.

Both Dixon and Rodriguez are being represented by the same lawyer, Jonathan Delshad.

Alex Spiro, a lawyer representing Perry in the most recent lawsuit, said in a statement that “having recently failed in another matter against Mr Perry, the very same lawyer has now made yet another demand from more than a decade ago which will also be a failed money grab.”

Spiro added that his client had yet to be served. Lionsgate did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.

Perry has written and directed plays, movies and television shows depicting black life in America, including the Madea series, in which he also stars.

In 2019, he opened a 330-acre studio complex in Atlanta, where productions including Black Panther and The Walking Dead have been filmed.

The New York Times

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).