After moving to Atlanta, Tyler Perry struggled a lot for funds and performed numerous jobs which include his living in a car but the determination and desire never let him give up. The early failure also couldn’t shake Perry’s confidence in his work. In 1998, he outreached the theatre audiences with musical play ‘I Know I’ve Been Changed’, most of them loved and liked it and he received both critical acclaim and box office success. His next play was ‘I Can Do Bad All by Myself’ whose major highlight was the Perry act of a character Madea which was sculpted after his dear mother. Ticket sales from his play collected him enough amount to finance his first, a commercially successful movie ‘Diary of a Mad Black Woman’.
For his 2006 dramedy film ‘Madea’s Family Reunion’ Perry was the director, producer and leading star for the movie. On February 14, 2007, Perry released his second romantic comedy drama ‘Daddy’s Little Girls’ starring Idris Elba and the Gabrielle Union. His next venture was ‘Why Did I Get Married’, was it his confidence or commitment, Perry took the significant role of direction, production and acting for the movie. The movie was an instant hit with a record breaking opening of $ 21.4 million. The unstoppable Perry was soon spotted shooting in Whistler, British, Columbia. In the subsequent times, he appeared on ‘Meet the Browns’, ‘The Family That Preys’ and ‘Madea Goes to Jail’.
On the request of J. J. Abrams Perry was kind enough to guest star in Star Trek’ in a role of Starfleet Academy commandant Admiral Barnett. In 2010, he appeared in musical play ‘Madea’s Big Family’. It was a humongous success so Perry filmed it with the same title ‘Madea’s Big family’. His next project ‘Good Deeds’ was a second with Lionsgate in which he too played the leading role of Wesley Deeds alongside Thandie Newton and the Gabrielle Union. On 29th June 2012, Perry released his seventh movie ‘Madea’s Witness Protection’ from the franchise of Madea.
The thirteenth movie filmed by Perry was romantic drama film ‘Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor’ starring Lance Gross and Brandy Norwood, which was released on March 29, 2013. In an up and coming 3D computer-animated comedy film ‘The Star’, Perry and Oprah Winfrey have come together to voice for their respective character.
Perry’s television sitcom ‘Tyler Perry’s House of Payne’ was the exceeding sitcom in the television for ongoing 8 seasons. The show was a great success with awesome ratings and proves that there is a huge possibility for stories based on African-American. He was also the producer, director, and writer for TBS sitcom ‘Meet the Browns’.
He also partnered with Oprah Winfrey and her Oprah Winfrey Network on October 2, 2012, with a purposive motive to attract the scripted television to the OWN. He was also the executive producer, creator, and writer for ‘Tyler’s Perry For Better or Worse’, which was a series based on his film ‘Why Did I Get Married’ and ‘Why Did I Get Married Too’. His hour-long soap opera series ‘The Haves and the Have Nots’ and ‘Love Thy Neighbor’ featured on OWN.
In his never ending career, Perry has added one more accomplishment, with his first ever humor novel ‘Don’t Make a Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings: Madea’s Uninhibited Commentaries on Love and Life which was published on April 11, 2006. He also received Quills Awards for the book in 2006.