Tyler Perry

Tyler Perry (born September 13, 1969) is an American playwright, actor and film director. His best-known character is Mabel Simmons, more commonly known as “Madea,” an overbearing if well-intentioned woman who serves both as comic relief and as the loud voice of conscience to the principal protagonists of Perry’s morality plays.

Perry was born in New Orleans, one of four children. His father, Emmitt, was a carpenter and construction worker, and his mother, Maxine, was a pre-school teacher and worked at the New Orleans Jewish Community Center for most of her life. His childhood in New Orleans was marked by poverty and physical abuse. He was once homeless and lived in his car for three months. Perry is a Christian.

His first movie, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, produced on a budget of $5.5 million, became an unexpected hit, prompting widespread discussion among industry watchers about whether middle-class African Americans were simply not being addressed by mainstream Hollywood movies. Its final gross box office receipts were $50.6 million. On opening weekend, February 24, 2006 Perry’s film version of Madea’s Family Reunion opened at number one with $22 million and a $14,770 per screen average. The film eventually grossed $65 million, and like Diary, almost all of it in the United States. The film was jump-started by an hour-long appearance by Perry and his co-stars on the influential Oprah Winfrey show.