His breakthrough performance came in 2005 with the film Diary of a Mad Black Woman, which he wrote and produced as an adaptation of his stage play of the same name.

He also developed numerous television series, most notably Tyler Perry's House of Payne, which ran for eight seasons on TBS from 2006 to 2012.

Outside of his own productions, Perry has been cast in numerous Hollywood films including Star Trek (2009), Alex Cross (2012), Gone Girl (2014), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016), Vice (2018), Those Who Wish Me Dead (2021), and Don't Look Up (2021).

Perry's films and shows have cumulatively grossed over $660 million, and his net worth is an estimated $1 billion,[7] making him one of the richest people in the entertainment industry.

[8][9][10] In 2020, Perry was included in Time's list of the 100 most influential people[11] and received the Governor's Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

[19] In his early 20s, watching an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, he heard someone describe the sometimes therapeutic effect the act of writing can have, enabling the author to work out his or her own problems.

[21] The play included Christian themes of forgiveness, dignity, and self-worth, while addressing issues such as child abuse and dysfunctional families.

[25] Perry's next Lionsgate project, Daddy's Little Girls, starred Gabrielle Union and Idris Elba and was released in the United States on February 14, 2007.

Filming began March 5, 2007, in Whistler, British Columbia, a resort town north of Vancouver, then moved to Atlanta, where Perry had opened his own studio.

At the request of director J. J. Abrams,[29] also in 2009, Perry had a small role as the Starfleet Academy commandant Admiral Barnett in Star Trek, which opened on May 8.

[32] Perry directed a film adaptation of Ntozake Shange's 1975 choreopoem For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, which was released in theaters November 5, 2010.

The film received a 29% rating by review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and opened with a box office US$15.5 million gross.

[35] The movie also stars Thandie Newton, Rebecca Romijn, Gabrielle Union, Eddie Cibrian, Jamie Kennedy, Phylicia Rashad, and others.

[38] The film which opened on October 19, 2012, was panned by critics and audiences, with Rotten Tomatoes scores of 11% & 47% positive respectively, and became a box office bomb.

[39] His performance gained the attention of director David Fincher, who subsequently cast Perry in his 2014 thriller Gone Girl, co-starring with Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, and Neil Patrick Harris.

Perry released his thirteenth film, Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor (based on his 2008 play of the same name) on March 29, 2013.

The film stars Lance Gross, Jurnee Smollett, Brandy Norwood, Robbie Jones, Vanessa L. Williams, and Kim Kardashian.

Perry, alongside Oprah Winfrey, lent his voice in his first animated film, called The Star, which is based on the Nativity of Jesus.

Perry also wrote, directed and produced the sitcom Meet the Browns, which premiered on TBS on January 7, 2009, and ended on November 18, 2011.

The partnership was largely for the purposes of bringing scripted television to OWN, Perry having had previous success in this department.

[50] The program was credited by Oprah Winfrey as bringing success to her network and opened the door for a host of other highly rated dramas to OWN.

The TV deal began fall 2019 with The Oval, Sistas and BET+ (a brand new streaming service) premiering with strong ratings for BET.

[64] Perry's first book, Don't Make a Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings: Madea's Uninhibited Commentaries on Love and Life, appeared on April 11, 2006.

While she noted his work for its humor and "positive messages of self-worth, love and respect," she later expressed frustration that African-Americans "have been fed the same images of ourselves over and over and over because they sell.

"[72] Lemieux dismissed his famous Madea character, claiming that "Through her, the country has laughed at one of the most important members of the black community: Mother Dear, the beloved matriarch.

[80] On January 6, 2020, Perry posted a video on Instagram in which he revealed that he doesn't use a writers room for his films and TV shows and prefers to write his work himself.

He also said that nonunion writers struggled to meet his standards of quality and that he "was unhappy with every single script they wrote" because "they were not speaking to the voice.

I don't think he's talking to me, but I know that he's speaking directly to my mother, my sister, my cousins and meeting them at their point of need, and that's what art and filmmaking is about.

[97] On March 7, 2021, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex publicly revealed in the television interview Oprah with Meghan and Harry that Perry provided initial security and housing for three months that allowed the couple to relocate safely from Canada to California in March 2020, following the withdrawal of their British royal protection.

[100] Following the death of Stephen "tWitch" Boss, Perry uploaded a video to his Instagram account where he spoke about his own struggles with depression, and revealed he had attempted suicide several times before his career took off.