As one of entertainment’s most prominent figures, Tyler Perry is a household name. The film multi-hyphenate helped transform cinema to include more stories, characters and settings representative of Black culture. As a result of years of dedication, Tyler has amassed a sizable net worth — but he didn’t start out as a wealthy movie tycoon.
“I love when people say you come from ‘humble beginnings.’ [It] means you were poor as hell,” Tyler told Forbes in September 2020. “It also makes success sweeter. Ownership changes everything.”
Below, find out what Tyler’s net worth is and learn about his career.
Tyler has a rags to riches story. Growing up in New Orleans, the actor started out as a playwright and eventually got his foot in the door of the film business.
According to Forbes, in 2020, Tyler earned around $1.4 billion in pretax income since 2005. With that money, he purchased properties in multiple cities across the U.S. in Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles and Wyoming. He even bought two planes by that point.
Tyler eventually introduced the character Madea, and he made movie history by starring in and releasing 13 of them.
“I couldn’t walk down the street without people screaming, ‘Madea, Tyler, Madea!’” Tyler told Forbes in 2020. “And then, I got to Hollywood, and they had no clue. No clue to what I’d done, who I was or the following I had.”
