Pause!

Here we go again.

Another man comes out with allegations that mega film director and actor Tyler Perry committed an act of sexual battery. Sexual battery is either unwanted groping of the buttocks or penis.

An actor who appeared in “Boo! A Madea Halloween” is suing the entertainment mogul for sexual battery.

In the lawsuit filed on Thursday, Mario Rodriguez claims Perry subjected him to unwanted sexual advances and multiple instances of assault, per The Hollywood Reporter. He’s seeking at least $77 million.

Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Perry, denied the allegations.

This is the second time in a year, men came out with some damaging allegations against Perry.

Derek Dixon, an actor who appeared in Perry's shows The Oval and Ruthless, filed a lawsuit in June 2025. He alleges that Perry made unwanted sexual advances on multiple occasions, including groping him and threatening his role on the shows if he did not comply. Dixon is seeking $260 million in damages.

Mario Rodriguez, an actor who had a minor role in Boo! A Madea Halloween, filed a separate lawsuit in December 2025, seeking $77 million in damages. He claims that Perry sexually assaulted him and made unwanted advances repeatedly over several years after meeting at a gym in 2015. 

Now again, if you remember Aaron McGruder's The Boondocks on Adult Swim. In an episode called "Pause", Robert Freeman is hired to participate in a play written by playwright Winston Jerome. Freeman (voiced by John Witherspoon) was amazed by the talents that Jerome (voiced by Affton Crockett) held in Black media. Huey (voiced by Regina King) and Riley (voiced by King) were cynical of Jerome. They believe their granddad was enticed into a cult. That cult would exploit men for Jerome's sexual desires.

The episode was pulled from Adult Swim after Perry threatened to sue and pull his impact from Warner Bros. and Sony Entertainment.

The Boondocks famously parodied Tyler Perry in an episode.

Greg Braxton of the Los Angeles Times cited "Pause" as one of the sharpest public criticisms of [Tyler] Perry" and situated it alongside other critiques of Perry's work from African American filmmakers like Spike Lee.

Perry born Emmitt Perry, Jr. is an American actor, filmmaker, and playwright. He is the creator and performer of Mabel "Madea" Simmons, a tough elderly woman, and also portrays her brother Joe Simmons and her nephew Brian Simmons. Perry's films vary in style from orthodox filmmaking techniques to filmed productions of live stage plays, many of which have been subsequently adapted into feature films. Madea's first appearance was in I Can Do Bad All by Myself (1999) staged in Chicago.

Perry wrote and produced many stage plays, which were at their successful peak in the 1990s and the 2000s. His breakthrough performance came in 2005 with the film Diary of a Mad Black Woman, which he wrote and produced as an adaptation of his stage play of the same name. He also developed numerous television series, most notably Tyler Perry's House of Payne, which ran for eight seasons on TBS from 2006 to 2012, before being renewed in 2020. In 2011, Forbes listed him as the highest-paid man in entertainment, earning $130 million between May 2010 and May 2011. In 2012, Perry struck an exclusive multi-year partnership with Oprah Winfrey and her Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). The deal featured scripted projects such as The Haves and the Have Nots.[6] In 2019, he produced the political drama series The Oval for BET.

Outside of his own productions, Perry has been cast in numerous Hollywood films including Star Trek (2009), Alex Cross (2012), Gone Girl (2014), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016), Vice (2018), Those Who Wish Me Dead (2021), and Don't Look Up (2021). Perry has also done voice acting for animated films such as The Star (2017) and Paw Patrol: The Movie (2021).

Perry's films and shows have cumulatively grossed over $660 million, and his net worth is an estimated $1 billion, making him one of the richest people in the entertainment industry. Despite commercial success, his productions have received criticism from critics and scholars who believe his films perpetuate negative or offensive portrayals of African Americans, along with the critical reception itself being largely negative. In 2020, Perry was included in Time's list of the 100 most influential people and received the Governor's Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Additionally, he received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy Awards in 2021, and was inducted into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame the following year.