Tyler Perry

Tyler Perry (born Emmitt Perry, Jr.; September 13, 1969) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, producer, author, and songwriter, specializing in Gospel music. 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. Perry is best known for both creating and performing in drag the Madea character, a giant, over-reactive, and thuggishly tough elderly woman. Perry's also well-known for creating both stage-play films and conventional onsite films. Between the two, his stage-play films debuted first in 1998 with I Know I've Been Changed. His career with conventional onsite films began in 2005 with Diary of a Mad Black Woman, which features his claim to fame role, Madea. Many of Perry's conventional onsite 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; and A Madea Christmas (conventional onsite film based on the play), slated for release on December 13, 2013. Perry was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, as Emmitt Perry, Jr., the son of Willie Maxine Perry and Emmitt Perry, Sr. He has three siblings. Perry once said his father's "answer to everything was to beat it out of you.” 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 and contentment. At age 16, he had his first name legally changed from Emmitt to Tyler in an effort to distance himself from his father. Many years later, after seeing the film Precious, he was moved to relate for the first time accounts of being molested by a friend's mother at age 10; he was also molested by three men