Wafricnews – June 7, 2025

Tyler Perry is back in the spotlight, but this time it's not for a box office hit. The media mogul is facing legal heat over his latest Netflix comedy series, She The People. A new lawsuit claims Perry, along with actress Terri J. Vaughn and streaming giant Netflix, copied a concept tied to a nonprofit based in Mississippi.

According to reports from The Clarion Ledger, Aimee Allison—the founder of the political advocacy group She The People—has filed a suit claiming that Perry’s show borrows heavily from an unfinished documentary she was working on in 2020.

Allison says she had teamed up with Nina Holiday Entertainment Inc. to bring her vision to life, and that Vaughn was involved in those early talks. The two allegedly exchanged ideas, talked about interviewees, and developed themes—all under the shared understanding that the concept would stay in the hands of Allison’s nonprofit.

But things took a sharp turn.

Fast forward to now, and She The People is not a documentary, but a sitcom airing on Netflix, with themes that Allison says look mighty familiar. The lawsuit claims Perry’s company, Tyler Vision, even tried to trademark the She The People name last September—but the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office shot it down in April.

“The Series echoes many of the same themes regarding Black women’s experiences in politics that Ms. Allison addresses through her activism,” the lawsuit argues, per Black Enterprise.

Now, Allison is calling for a jury trial.

The series, which dropped its first batch of episodes last month, stars Vaughn alongside Jo Marie Payton, Jade Novah, Drew Olivia Tillman, Tré Boyd, and Dyon Brooks. Netflix pitches it as a sharp political comedy about Antoinette Dunkerson, a rising politician who wins her race for lieutenant governor—only to find herself battling sexism at the top while juggling her now-public family life.

A second batch of episodes is slated for August, but with the lawsuit underway, it’s unclear if the legal drama behind the scenes will overshadow the laughs on-screen.

One thing’s for sure—this isn’t the first time art, activism, and intellectual property have collided. And it won’t be the last.