Acclaimed American filmmaker and media mogul Tyler Perry is facing legal action over his new Netflix series She The People, which is alleged to have infringed upon a trademark and concept belonging to a Mississippi-based nonprofit organisation.
Perry, known for his character Madea and for building one of the largest Black-owned studios in the United States, has long been celebrated for creating content that centres on African-American experiences, faith, and family dynamics.
According to The Clarion Ledger, political advocate Aimee Allison, founder of the organisation She The People, has filed a lawsuit against Perry’s production company, Tyler Vision, as well as actress and director Terri J. Vaughn, Netflix, and 25 unnamed individuals. The lawsuit claims the show closely mirrors a project Allison had been developing as a documentary back in 2020.
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Allison alleges that she had enlisted Nina Holiday Entertainment Inc. to produce the documentary and was in direct communication with Vaughn at the time. Believing Vaughn was acting on behalf of the company, Allison shared creative ideas, discussed themes, and outlined interviewees all under the assumption that the materials would remain under the nonprofit’s control.
“The Series echoes many of the same themes regarding Black women’s experiences in politics that Ms. Allison addresses through her activism under the She The People mark, albeit in a slightly different format,” the complaint reads, as quoted by Black Enterprise.
The suit further reveals that Perry’s team attempted to register the She The People trademark in September last year, but the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected the application in April 2025. Allison is now seeking a jury trial to resolve the dispute.
She The People debuted on Netflix last month with an initial batch of eight episodes, featuring a cast that includes Jo Marie Payton, Jade Novah, Drew Olivia Tillman, Tré Boyd, and Dyon Brooks. The second set of episodes is expected in August.
Netflix describes the series as centring on “Lieutenant Governor candidate Antoinette Dunkerson, who runs a successful campaign and now must figure out how to thrive under a sexist and condescending governor while attempting to keep her family in line now that they’re all in the public eye.”
As the legal dispute unfolds, it raises significant questions about intellectual property rights in creative collaborations and the boundaries between inspiration and appropriation in the entertainment industry.
