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Tyler Perry Is Officially A Billionaire According To Forbes Magazine

Tyler Perry Is Officially A Billionaire According To Forbes Magazine

Tyler Perry
Tyler Perry is officially a self-made billionaire and his newly minted status was confirmed by Forbes, which features him on its cover. In this Feb. 24, 2019 file photo, Tyler Perry arrives at the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Less than a day after the family of a slain single mother of four launched a fundraising appeal, Perry has lent his support. News outlets report Perry offered to take care of the family’s rent to stave off eviction, arrange for 45-year-old Tynesha Evans’ body to be flown to Wisconsin for burial and cover her 18-year-old daughter’s tuition at Spelman College so she doesn’t have to drop out.(Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)

Tyler Perry is officially a self-made billionaire. That’s right, we said self-made billionaire with a ‘b’. The entertainment mogul’s newly minted status was confirmed by Forbes.

According to the magazine, Perry has earned $1.4 billion in pre-tax income since 2005, his current net worth is $1 billion and he is on “a clear path to future membership in The Forbes 400.”

Perry, 51, is known for being “the ultimate one-man show.” He is the sole writer, director and producer of an enormous amount of content including hit stage plays, movies and television shows – and he owns all of it.

His beloved character Madea is an icon with her own canon to fans; Perry has “a large equity stake in BET+,” where a lot of his content is streamed; and he is the first Black person to own a major production studio.

But it was not an easy feat, particularly when the odds – and decision makers – in mainstream Hollywood were stacked against him.

In the magazine’s cover story, Perry discusses his journey going from “poor as hell” to cementing his current billionaire-status on his own terms.

“You got to understand, I had no mentors,” Perry told Forbes. “My father doesn’t know anything about business, and my uncles and mother, they know nothing about this. I didn’t go to business school. Everything I’ve learned, I’ve learned in progress.”

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Perry detailed living with an abusive father who turned out not to be his real father, growing up in poverty, dropping out of high school, working odd jobs to make ends meet, his early failed productions, being homeless, and all the ups and downs he went through before he became one of the most respected names in an industry that initially wanted nothing to do with him.

Eventually Perry was offered a $200 million by TBS to air the content he owned of which he pocketed an estimated $138 million, Forbes reported.

“It was so out of the box, such a different paradigm,” entertainment lawyer Dan Black told Forbes. “You can get meaningful fees and meaningful back-end, but if you own the content, that’s very, very impressive and not an easy thing to do.” 

Today Perry’s deal with BET+ affords him $150 million a year for content through the year 2025. He will get exclusive rights to all of it also once the deal expires.

With all his success Perry plans to start funding projects from other Black creators who’ve been shunned by Hollywood. He also plans to invest in victims of human trafficking, LGBTQ and impoverished youth through future projects he plans to build at his studio.

“I can go outside and take this dirt and put it on my hands and know that there were Confederate soldiers here walking this land, plotting and planning everything they could to keep us Negroes in place,” Perry says. “The very fact that I am here on this land, the very fact that hundreds of people—Black and brown people—come here to make a living, that is effecting change.”

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