Tyler Perry in the Southern Quote

He was born Sept. 14^th 1969 in New Orleans, LA. His mother was a preschool teacher who took him to church and walked the talk. His father was a carpenter who abused him throughout his childhood. During those years, Tyler was also molested by several adults. By the age of sixteen he was a depressed teen who had attempted suicide, dropped out of high school, and changed his first name from Emmet to Tyler to distance himself from his father.

Tyler was working in an office when he caught an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show that touted the therapeutic benefits of journaling. He began writing letters to himself to work through the bad experiences of his childhood. Soon, he had adapted those letters into a play about domestic abuse and dysfunctional families. Tyler rented a theater in Atlanta to put on his play, but it failed to find an audience. Tyler was down but he wasn’t out.

Seven years later, Tyler was living in his car and working odd jobs but he was also honing his craft, continuously revising and retooling his play. When he got his next opportunity to stage it, “I Know I’ve Changed” played to a sold out audience and fueled his drive to produce more of his work.

Today Tyler Perry is an extremely successful writer, director, actor and producer, with hits on the stage, and in the television and film industries. He’s grossed over $100 million dollars in tickets and DVD sales. The man named one of the 50 smartest people in Hollywood by Entertainment Weekly has done it all with clean material and characters like Madea, a large tough African American Jesus loving, gun toting, wise cracking grandmother played by Tyler himself.

In today’s Southern Quote, we honor the career of Tyler Perry who once said, “Don’t wait for someone to green light your project. Build your own intersection.”