Guest Author - Amy Ralston Young

Perhaps the most successful African American playwright ever, Tyler Perry successfully made the leap to the big screen and the world of sitcoms, using the same formula for all three mediums.

As a young boy in New Orleans, Perry’s life was marked by poverty and physical abuse by his father. He dropped out of school at age 16, and moved to Atlanta seven years later, looking for a new start.

In Atlanta, Perry worked a series of odd jobs, looking for his big break. One day, following advice he saw on “Oprah,” Perry began to write his feelings down about his abusive childhood. These writings were later used as the basis for his first play.

In 1998, “I Know I’ve Been Changed” finally found an audience and his tale of adult survivors of child abuse launched him as a viable playwright/producer. His following play, a staging of Bishop T. D. Jakes' book Woman Thou Art Loosed, was an immediate hit, grossing over $5 million in five months.

Perry continued writing and producing plays, many of which are still on tour today, but decided to branch out into movies as well. His first movie, “Diary of a Mad Black Woman,” took the nation by storm – especially the African American community. Apparently no one was reaching out to the middle class churchgoers, and Perry found a devoted following.

His most successful movie to date is “Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Family Reunion.” The movie raked in $30 million its opening weekend, and took another $33.3 million in before it left theaters.

In all, Perry has released five movies and has another two slated to come out in the next two years. His next film, “A Family That Preys” is currently filming in Atlanta. The movie, which stars Alfre Woodard and Kathy Bates, is set to open on September 12 2008.

In 2006, Perry made the leap to the small screen with his sitcom “House of Payne.” The show’s premise revolves around a multi-generational family living under one roof in Atlanta. The show was such a hit that TBS ordered 100 episodes after just the second show. The 3rd season began March 5, and starting in September the show will move to the FOX network. After the 100th episode airs, the sitcom will end its original run and no new episodes will be produced.

Rumor has it that Perry is working on creating a sitcom out of his latest movie, “Meet the Browns.”

Perry’s rise to the top isn’t just luck. He knows how to reach his target audience and he stays with that formula. This has brought some criticism from other African American directors, but his movies keep making huge amounts of money, so why fix what isn’t broken?