FROM ABUSE TO STARDOM (THE STORY OF TYLER PERRY)

Award-winning American playwright, producer, and actor, Tyler Perry recounted how the love he received from his mother soothed the abuse he received at the hands of his father.

Picture: Tyler Perry

The life of America’s first black studio mogul, Tyler Perry did not start as rosy as some presume. The 41 - year- old, grew up in a physically abusive home and was beaten on several occasions by his father. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, he revealed how he was constantly physically abused, humiliated, and ridiculed by his father as a child.

“My father would scream at me. He hated the fact that I would read and draw and get straight A’s in school. But even though he would humiliate me to my face, he would praise me to my neighbours.” he said.

He recounted how he was whipped with an electric cord for absolutely no reason till he had scars all over him.

“He cornered me in a room one night and I still to this day don’t know why. He came home drunk. That was his thing. He would walk in the door raising hell. Sometimes he would come home in such a rage that he was a totally different person. The vacuum cleaner cord - that was one of those nights. He beat me till the skin was coming off”. The care and love his mother showered on him, kept him going. 

He got to understand his father after getting to know his upbringing. According to him, the father was abandoned by his parents and was raised by a white man and a 14-year-old black girl who constantly beat, humiliate and ridicule him so it was the only thing he knew how to do.

Picture: Physical Abuse

Tyler Perry began writing all his experiences after he took advice from watching one of Oprah’s shows. It was at this point that his passion for writing took shape. In 1992, he moved to Atlanta with the dream of staging his first play but it was not until 1998 that the dream took flight. In between those years, he failed over 6 times and even had several shows that no one attended. He was financially drained to the extent that he was living in his car. Since then, Tyler Perry has directed several plays including his hit, Madea’s Family Reunion. He has also created two successful TBS shows, Tyler Perry’s House of Payne and Meet the Browns.

In 2010, he opened the Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta and provides jobs for hundreds of people living in the city. He attributes his success to GOD taking him through all these experiences.