Tyler Perry

Tyler Perry• "
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Tyler Perry

at the 82nd Academy Awards
(March 7, 2010)
Born Emmitt Perry, Jr.
September 13, 1969 (age 43)
New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.

Occupation Actor, author, screen and playwright, producer, director, songwriter
Years active 1992–present
Website
Official website

Tyler Perry (born EmmittPerry, Jr.; September 13, 1969) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, producer, author,[1] and songwriter. Perry wrote and produced many stage plays during the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2011, Forbes named him the highest paid man in entertainment, earning $130 million between May 2010 and 2011.[2]
Perry is best known for creating, and performing in drag, the Madea character, agiant, overreactive, and thuggishly tough elderly woman.[3][4][5] Perry's also well-known for creating both stage-play films and conventional on-site films. Between the two, his stage-play films debuted first in 1998 with I Know I've Been Changed. His career with conventional films began in 2005 with Diary of a Mad Black Woman, which features his claim to fame role, Madea.[6] Many of Perry'sconventional films are based on and titled after his stage-play films.
Perry currently has two upcoming Madea films in the works: Tyler Perry’s Madea Gets A Job (stage-play film), set for release on Blu-ray Disc, DVD, Digital Download, Video On Demand and Pay-Per-View on February 5, 2013;[7] and A Madea Christmas (conventional on-site film based on the play), slated for release on December 13, 2013.[8]Contentsc
[hide]
• 1 Early life
• 2 Stage
• 3 Film
• 4 Television
• 5 Books
• 6 Stylistic trademarks
• 7 Criticism
o 7.1 Responses
• 8 Personal life
• 9 Filmography
o 9.1 Film work
o 9.2 Play work
o 9.3 Television work
• 10 Awards and nominations
• 11 References
• 12 External links

[edit] Early life
Perry was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, as Emmitt Perry, Jr., the son ofWillie Maxine Perry (née Campbell) and Emmitt Perry, Sr., a carpenter.[9] He has three siblings.[10] Perry once said his father's "answer to everything was to beat it out of you".[11] As a child, Perry once went so far as to attempt suicide in an effort to escape his father's beatings. In contrast to his father, his mother took him to church each week, where he sensed a certain refuge andcontentment.[11] At age 16, he had his first name legally changed from Emmitt to Tyler in an effort to distance himself from his father.[12]
Many years later, after seeing the film Precious, he was moved to relate for the first time[13] accounts of being molested by a friend's mother at age 10; he was also molested by three men previous to this, and later found out his own father had molested hisfriend.[14]
While Perry did not complete high school, he earned a GED.[15] In his early 20s, watching an Oprah Winfrey talk show, he heard someone describe the sometimes therapeutic effect the act of writing can have, enabling the author to work out his or her own problems. This comment inspired him to apply himself to a career in writing. He soon started writing a series of letters to himself, whichbecame the basis for the musical, I Know I've Been Changed.
[edit] Stage
Around 1990, he moved to Atlanta, where two years later I Know I've Been Changed was first performed at a community theater, financed by the $12,000 life savings of the 22-year-old Perry.[16] It included Christian themes of forgiveness, dignity and self-worth, while addressing issues such as child abuse and dysfunctionalfamilies. The musical initially received a "less than stellar" reception and was a financial failure.[17] Perry persisted, and over the next six years he rewrote the musical repeatedly, though lackluster reviews continued. In 1998, at age 28, he succeeded in retooling of the play in Atlanta first at the House of Blues, then at the Fox Theatre. Perry continued to create new stage productions, touring...