People know who Tyler Perry is; everyone knows and loves Madea. They are familiar with his work and his talent as an actor, producer, and writer. What some people may not know about him is his journey to success. When I think about celebrities, I look at their perfect life with unlimited money and no worries and believe that they have had an easy and privileged life. One may think that they had a perfect childhood because they grew up in a wealthy family, but unfortunately for Tyler Perry that was not the case.
He was born and raised here in New Orleans, Louisiana by his mother and father. Growing up, Perry struggled to have a respectable relationship with his father, Emmitt Perry Sr. Later in life during an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Perry
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Hearing Oprah talk about this sparked the beginning of his professional career. In the years that followed, Tyler worked many different jobs, from being a carpenter like his dad to having an office job, in order to support himself. He never felt satisfied with these jobs and did not stay at them for very long and eventually quitting. Jobless, he could not even afford a suitable shelter for himself leaving him to live in his car—which was about the same size as a Smart Car in today’s world (Biography.com). But, after working many monotonous jobs, Tyler decided to pursue his passion. He took Oprah’s advice and began to write to himself talking about his troubled childhood. These letters lead into his first playwright, a musical he titled I know I’ve Changed. At first, his play wasn’t as popular as he thought it would be, but that did not stop him. He quickly gained attention after renting out the House of Blues in Atlanta for his play where it began to repeatedly sell out …show more content…
Soon after, Perry introduced one of his most popular characters, Madea. He created this character to symbolize the important woman that were in his life at the time, including his mother who he idolized. Madea is a short-tempered and sailor-mouthed grandma who shows to be a mature woman. As this character became more popular in his plays, Perry released his first film in 2001 titled, Diary of a Mad Black Woman (IMDb). This movie exposed the world to Tyler Perry where he dressed as a woman playing the role of Madea.
His character, Madea, revealed to her audience many life lessons in all the movies she was casted in. Perry believed that family should be play important role in one’s life, you should want to help others, and to forgive and move on (6 life lessons…). All of these themes, among many others, were made clear by Perry when writing his plays and movies.
As time went on, more of his plays were made into full-length films which brought in more revenue to support his future projects. Along with his plays and movies, he even created and a television series; House of Payne was his first TV series which aired on TBS. In addition to his career he had a best-selling book which, in 2006, won two Quill awards (Biography.com). Perry has a unique sense of humor and knows how to reach out to his audience in his works.
Having eight plays grossing over $75 million, he has